METHOD: This cross-sectional survey was conducted from November 2017 to January 2018 at the warfarin clinic of Jerantut Hospital, Malaysia.
RESULTS: Some 58 participants were recruited, of whom 70.7% were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF). Overall, 87.9% of the participants claimed adherence to their warfarin regimens. Patients with good-quality INR therapy were significantly older, had a higher median income and longer appointment durations. In terms of illness perception (IP), participants with good-quality INR therapyhad significantly lower scores in the identity, personal control, and consequence domains. Overall, the total scores for IP were significantly lower in the good-quality INR therapy. Meanwhile, the MALMAS scores were significantly lower in patients with sub-therapeutic current INR. However, there were no associations between warfarin adherence and perceived social support with current TTR.
CONCLUSION: Monitoring of demographic factors and IP's domains is vital since they were associated with quality of INR therapy. Meanwhile, the occurrence of sub-therapeutic current INR should raise suspicion of poor adherence in these patients. Overall, IP and MALMAS are useful tools that should be integrated into the patient care protocols.
METHODS: The searched articles were selected based on the available keywords in the title and abstract with the publication restricted between January 2010 and September 2020. Articles generated from the databases must fulfill both inclusion and exclusion criteria in the present systematic review. Our initial search retrieved 221 literature reviews. After excluding articles with irrelevant topics, a total of 23 articles were chosen for this current review.
RESULTS: The factors were classified based on three main factors: patient-related, medication-related, and healthcare workers-related factors. For patient-related factors, gender, age, number of family members, education level, post-hospitalization, comorbidities and cardiovascular disease risk, follow-up status, occupation, socio-economy, insurance, perception, ethnicity, and health plan were among the factors affecting adherence to LLDs. As for medication-related factors, timing, polypharmacy, duration of treatment, generic medication, intensity of medication, side effects, initiating dose, packaging, drug dosing, and type of drugs were revealed as contributing factors. In the light of healthcare workers, related factors shown were counseling, medication optimization, type of provider, and location of the hospital.
CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations to improve adherence include educating patients on the disease itself and the importance of the treatment, modification of the dosing, timing and type of LLDs, and effective consultations by healthcare workers. Further studies need to be done in Malaysia as there is inadequate research on this topic.
METHODS: Thirty subjects who were menopausal women within the age limit of 45-60 were participated in this study and randomly allotted into two experimental groups. The treatment group was orally administered with N. sativa seeds powder in the form of capsules at a dose of 1g per day after breakfast for period of two months and compared to control group given placebo. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured at baseline, 1st month, 2nd month and a month after treatment completed to determine their body weight, serum lipid profile and fasting blood glucose (FBG).
RESULTS: The treatment group showed slight reduction with no significant difference in body weight changes of the respondents. However, significant (p<0.05) improvement was observed in total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and blood glucose (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION: These results suggested that treatment with N. sativa exert a protective effect by improving lipid profile and blood glucose which are in higher risk to be elevated during menopausal period.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of PMCTA in diagnosing coronary artery stenosis using water-based contrast media introduced though the vessels of the neck, compared to the gold standard of diagnosis i.e. gross and histological evaluation of the coronary artery.
METHOD: This was a cross sectional study of 158 arterial sections involving 37 subjects recruited from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (IPFN), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). An unenhanced PMCT was performed followed by PMCTA using water-based contrast media introduced though the vessels of the neck. Coronary artery stenosis was determined using multiplanar reconstructionD while the degree of stenosis was determined by calculating the percentage of luminal diameter divided by the diameter of the vessel internal elastic.
RESULTS: The analysis of PMCTA and histopathology examinations revealed a sensitivity of 61.5%, specificity of 91.7%; positive predictive value (PPV) of 40.0% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.4%.
CONCLUSION: PMCTA utilizing water-based contrast introduced though the vessels of the neck yielded similar results as other methods and techniques of PMCTA. We would therefore conclude that PMCTA utilizing this technique could be used to assess the degree of calcification and the presence of significant stenosis.