Rejected

The Department of Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program (MVP) is the largest ongoing cohort program of its kind, with 654,903 enrollees as of June 2018. The objectives of this study were to examine gender differences in the MVP cohort with respect to response and enrollment rates; demographic, health, and health care characteristics; and prevalence of self-reported health conditions.

The health of women Gulf War (deployed) and Gulf Era (nondeployed) veterans is understudied; although most studies examining the health effects of deployment to the Gulf War adjust for gender in multivariate analyses, gender-specific prevalence and effect measures are not routinely reported. The National Academy of Medicine recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs assess gender-specific health conditions in large cohort studies of Gulf War veterans.

Chronic pain conditions are common among both male and female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans and can have substantial negative impacts on quality of life and function. Although in general women tend to report higher levels of pain intensity than men, findings remain mixed on whether gender differences in pain exist in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. Additionally, the relationships between functional impairment, pain intensity, and gender remain unknown.

Electrocautery adenoidectomy (ECA) is a common procedure performed in paediatric otolaryngology. ECA has been preferred over curettage adenoidectomy due to its lower intraoperative bleeding rates, decreased procedure time, and higher subjective success. However, post-ECA symptoms of pain and halitosis have never been studied. The objective of our study was to identify the pattern of post-ECA halitosis and pain in the paediatric population. This is a single centre, prospective observational study that uses visual analogue scales (VAS) by parent proxy to assess post-ECA pain and halitosis in paediatric patients (age < 18) in South Australia. A total of 19 patients were enrolled in the study and followed for seven days. Postoperative pain and halitosis reaches a peak 3 days post-ECA (median = 2 for pain; median = 6 for halitosis) but resolves 7 days post-ECA (median = 0 for both). Our study demonstrates that halitosis and pain occur over a seven-day period in patients undergoing ECA and will resolve post-operatively with simple analgesia and without antibiotics.

Chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is one of the most common medical complaints worldwide and musculoskeletal injuries have an enormous social and economical impact. Current pharmacological and surgical treatments aim to relief pain and restore function; however, unsatiscactory outcomes are commonly reported. In order to find an accurate treatment to such pathologies, over the last years, there has been a significantly increasing interest in cellular therapies, such as adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSCs). These cells represent a relatively new strategy in regenerative medicine, with many potential applications, especially regarding MSK disorders, and preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated their efficacy in muscle, tendon, bone and cartilage regeneration. Nevertheless, several worries about their safety and side effects at long-term remain unsolved. This article aims to review the current state of AMSCs therapy in the treatment of several MSK diseases and their clinical applications in veterinary and human medicine.

To investigate the adrenocortical function changes of patients with advanced solid tumors who received the anti- programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody, SHR-1210 therapy. The clinical data of 98 patients with advanced solid tumors who were enrolled in a prospective phase I trial of SHR-1210 therapy at our institution between April 27, 2016 and June 8, 2017 were collected. The levels of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol were evaluated in 96 patients. The clinical manifestations, laboratory tests and radiologic data were collected to define the immune-related adrenal insufficiency. Until December 14th, 2018, no SHR-1210 related primary adrenal insufficiency occurred, and the incidence of immune-related secondary adrenal insufficiency was 1.0% among the 96 patients, which was identified as grade 2. No patient developed grade 3-4 adrenal insufficiency. The main clinical manifestations of the patient who was diagnosed as secondary adrenal insufficiency were grade 2 fatigue, anorexia and headache.The patient developed fatigue and anorexia at the 267th day after receiving the first dose of SHR-1210, the hypocortisolism occurred on the 279th day, and the headache emerged on the 291th day. The anorexia of patient who treated by physiological replacement doses of glucocorticoid since the 457th day was attenuated.The patient whose cortisol level was still below the normal limit continued to accept the hormone replacement therapy up to 776 days after the initial administration of SHR-1210. The incidence of SHR-1210 related adrenal insufficiency of patients with advanced solid tumors is low, and the symptoms can be effectively ameliorated by hormone replacement therapy. The potential adverse outcome of adrenal insufficiency following immunotherapy should be noticed by clinicians to avoid the occurrence of adrenal crisis.

Although rates of postoperative morbidity and mortality have become relatively low in patients undergoing transnasal transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) for pituitary adenoma, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fistulas remain a major driver of postoperative morbidity. Persistent CSF fistulas harbor the potential for headache and meningitis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether neural network-based models can reliably identify patients at high risk for intraoperative CSF leakage.

Intraspinal gas pseudocyst is rare, especially following spinal surgery. Here we present a case of spinal epidural gas pseudocyst following lumbar decompression surgery, which caused dura sac compression.

Incurable inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) patients occasionally suffer from general symptoms such as breast pain, bleeding, ulceration, and discharge, and thus require palliative radiotherapy (RT). Hypofractionated RT has many advantages in palliative settings, but very few studies on IBC have been conducted. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of hypofractionated RT on symptomatic IBC patients.

The objectives of this study were to explore the course of labor and the risk of obstetric anal sphincter injury at the first vaginal birth after cesarean section (fVBAC) in comparison to primiparous vaginal birth (PVB) in women without epidural analgesia and to assess if laboring before the previous cesarean affected these outcomes.