Sapporo Medical Journal

Abstract : Background: Medical students are at high risk to depression and/or anxiety. Group psychotherapy using the Four-step Model is one of the treatments in Minia Egypt. Online group therapy, a relatively new modality is to be investigated for helping medical students suffering from depression and anxiety. The aim: To assess the efficacy of online group psychotherapy in Minia University in Egypt for depression, anxiety and quality of life in female medical students. Subjects and Method: The studied online psychotherapy group was arranged for adult female medical students (in different medical faculties). 14 subjects were diagnosed as depression or anxiety or both according to DSM-5. The 1st group session was on October 2020 on ZOOM Cloud Meetings application for one year. Participants were assessed pre group, after 6 month and post group by Hamilton Depression Scale(HAM-D), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) and 36-item Short Form questionnaire for quality of life(SF-36). Results: 14 participants were included in the study. There were statistically significant results regarding effect of the used model on improving depressive and\or anxiety symptoms added to its significant effect on improving the quality of life. Also, there is positive correlation between changes in HAM-D & HAM-A with negative correlation between changes in HAM-D & HAM-A and SF-36 score. Conclusion: Online Four-Step Model group psychotherapy is effective for depression and anxiety in female medical students a

Abstract : During the summer, the consumption of cold drinks and ice cream rises, and it is widely believed that they are one of the causes of the common cold and sore throat in children, despite the fact that no scientific research have shown this causative association.The purpose of this research is to examine parents' expectations about ice cream, cold drinks, and hot beverages, as well as their effect on their children's common cold and sore throat. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted between 2021 to 2022. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to all the caregivers who are attending general pediatric clinics. Three hundred seventy-one participants met inclusion creteria , with the majority (59.8%) were mothers. Sixty percent of parents believe that consuming cold drinks and ice cream might lead their children to have cold symptoms. Our respondents had symptoms after the consumption of ice cream (45%) or cold drinks (22.4%). Intriguingly, thirty percent (30.2%) of respondents stated that cold drinks or ice cream ameliorated their symptoms. The majority of parents believed that their children would get a sore throat or a common cold after drinking cold drinks or eating ice cream. Further investigation is necessary to determine the elements that impact parental attitudr and practice toward their children's intake of cold drinks and ice cream.

Abstract : The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), a respiratory infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), began in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, spreading across China and then globally. The D-dimer concentrations of patients with COVID-19 in the third trimester were found relatively higher than those of uninfected pregnant women. This report aim to summarize the current evidence of D-dimer level in pregnant and non-pregnant woman with and without Covid-19. On December 5, 2022, two databases including ScienceDirect and PubMed was searched to review and mine the latest published information about pregnancy, Covid-19, and D-dimer in the literature. After screening articles by removing duplicates and reading the abstract, 34 studies were considered to be relevant and included in this systematic review. Collected 23 about D-dimer level in pregnant woman with Covid-19 infection, 4 studies about D-dimer level in pregnant woman with Covid-19 infection vs pregnant woman without Covid-19 infection, and 7 studies about D-dimer level in pregnant woman with Covid-19 infection vs non-pregnant woman with Covid-19 infection. In view of fact that D-dimer level is high in pregnant patients, pregnant patient with covid-19 infection, and pregnant patient with severe symptomatic Covid-19 infection. D-dimer monitoring will be important in the clinical practice of pregnant woman with Covid-19 infection.

Abstract : Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis that is more predominant in males and inversely correlated with age. Objectives: This study was designed to explore a correlation between hepatitis C viremia and sociodemographic characteristics. Patients and Methods: Two hundred twenty-nine HCV-positive patients at the Teaching Hospital for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, were included in this study from July 2021 to December 2022. Patients’ sociodemographic characteristics, including age and gender, were also collected using a self-designed questionnaire. The patient’s blood type, Rh factor, and viral load were also determined. Results: The findings showed that most of the patients (n=96, 41.92%) were aged ≥45 years, males (n=134, 58.51%) with blood type O (n= 126, 55%) and had Rh-positive (n=213, 93%). On the other hand, males had a higher mean viral load (5.47 log10 IU/mL) than females (5.16 log10 IU/mL). Also, patients with blood type AB had higher mean viral load (5.6 log10 IU/mL) than other blood types (5.16, 5.33, and 5.39 log10 IU/mL mean viral loads for A, B, and O blood groups, respectively). In addition, the patients with Rh-positive factor (n=213) had a higher mean viral load (5.37 log10 IU/mL) than the Rh-negative factor (n=16) which had 4.96 log10 IU/mL. Conclusion: We concluded that age and gender were more severely impacted by HCV viremia. Additionally, blood group type and Rh-factor were

Abstract : The important role of positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans in oncology arises from the ability to track physiological changes, such as metabolism, within tumours. Nevertheless, a high metabolism rate in malignant lesions is known to be caused by activating other mutation pathways, such as the Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) and B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (BRAF) pathways, that induce other physiological alterations, such as angiogenesis, cell proliferation and differentiation. Objective: to explore whether KRAS/BRAF mutation pathways can be captured non-invasively by analysing the image features (radiomics) induced by F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose distribution. Methods: Fifty-six colorectal cancer cases were retrospectively collected. A semi-automated (GrowGut) algorithm was then applied for tumour delineation. Next, 106 features were extracted. A logistic regression model was trained after feature reduction via the Boruta algorithm. The classifier accuracy was then assessed by the area under the curve (AUC). Results: Long Run Emphasis, Short Run Emphasis and High Gray Level Zone Emphasis were found to be associated with KRAS/BRAF mutation. The model showed the highest accuracy (0.83) at the cut-off value of 0.51. The model yielded an AUC of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.69–0.94) with 63% sensitivity and 94% specificity. Conclusion: Our results suggest that KRAF/BRAF overexpression is associated with higher Short Run Emphasis and High G