Highlights
August 2019
in “
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
”
TLDR Melatonin may help with nerve pain, a hepatitis C drug is effective but has side effects, a treatment for mouth sores works but can cause blood issues, ear reconstruction with an implant is safe, HIV transmission from mother to child in Taiwan is now 0% with treatment, certain blood problems are more common in people with a tongue condition, a gene and being overweight are linked to hair loss in some women, a new technique could reduce radiation for lung nodule patients, a hepatitis treatment may lower cancer recurrence after a procedure, and adding extra screening improves tuberculosis detection in patients with lung infections.
In the 2019 issue of the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association, a variety of studies were summarized. Kuthati et al. discussed melatonin's potential in neuropathic pain management. Hsu et al. reported a 100% effectiveness of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in treating chronic hepatitis C in Taiwanese patients, with side effects including pruritus, anorexia, and fatigue. Levamisole combined with prednisolone was found by Lu et al. to be effective in treating oral lichen planus, though some patients experienced serious hematological issues. Chan et al. found that auricular reconstruction with bone conduction device implantation was feasible and safe for microtia patients. Huang et al. demonstrated a reduction to 0% in mother-to-child HIV transmission in Taiwan with perinatal intervention. Kuo et al. observed a higher frequency of hematological issues in atrophic glossitis patients with certain antibody positivities. Tu et al. linked the HSD3B1 gene polymorphism and being overweight with female pattern hair loss in polycystic ovary syndrome patients. Yang et al. suggested that technical modifications in marking small pulmonary nodules could lower radiation exposure. Chen et al. indicated that sustained virologic response from PegIFN/RBV therapy could decrease tumor recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma patients after RFA treatment. Chang et al. studied the role of IRAKs and p38 in IL-1B-induced ICAM-1 and IL-8 expression/secretion in dental pulp cells. Naowarat et al. found that supplementary case finding improved tuberculosis detection among hospitalized patients with acute lower respiratory infections.
