In medicine, language matters and the words used to name and describe a disease can have a profound impact on patients and their families. Over the last two decades, many criticisms have been voiced about the nomenclature and definition of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in regards not only to the prominent role that alcohol plays in the definition but also on the negative impacts of the nomenclature including trivialization, stigmatization and less consideration of the disease in health policy. Recently, a consensus of international experts proposed that the disease acronym be changed from NAFLD to metabolic (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease or 'MAFLD'. This change goes far beyond a mere semantic revision and may be the first step that catalyses the process to better conceptualize the disease for health promotion, patient orientation, case identification, ongoing clinical trials and for health services delivery. Here we review the history of, and definitions of MAFLD in the context of advancing our understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease. We also address the reasons, signals, promises, challenges and the way going forward from the name change from various stakeholder perspectives. K E Y W O R D S MAFLD, metabolic, nomenclature | 1255 FOUAD et Al.
This study demonstrated the safety and short-term efficacy of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell injection in liver cell failure. Further study is necessary to standardize the cell dose, determine the life span of the injected cells, and detect the appearance of long-term complications.
The search for a substitute for the natural cornea dates back more than 200 years. Although several devices have been developed and trialled, very few have had successful long-term results and continue in regular clinical use. Keratoprosthesis (KPro) surgery is complex and should be performed in centres with an experienced multidisciplinary team. Currently available KPro devices range from the totally synthetic, such as the Boston KPro, to the totally biological tissue-engineered artificial cornea. The osteo-odonto keratoprothesis combines a synthetic optic with a biological haptic. All keratoprostheses have significant limitations, although visual improvement is possible with each of the devices in clinical use today. This review discusses these devices with emphasis on their indications, surgical techniques and results, before briefly exploring emerging devices and innovative approaches for the future.
Real-world experience of generic SOF-DCV in patients with chronic HCV-G4 proved to be safe and associated with a high SVR12 rate, in patients with different stages of fibrosis.
Debates are inevitable in science and could be a powerful tool for addressing controversial topics as it promotes critical thinking and inspires individuals to consider alternate viewpoints. However, debates can help only to identify the issues that need to be clarified to address this question, but it can never help resolve the controversy itself. In the era of evidence‐based medicine, the need for an evidence‐based debate is mandatory. Polarising opinions and major debate have recently arisen in hepatology on the nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for fatty liver disease associated with metabolic dysfunction (non alcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD]‐metabolic (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease [MAFLD] debate). The aim of this viewpoint is to suggest a way to settle the debate through evidence. Descriptive review using PubMed to identify literature on the evidence and eminence‐based medicine and studies comparing MAFLD and NAFLD criteria. The emerging studies comparing the performance of diagnostic criteria of NAFLD and MAFLD represent the dawn of a new era for reframing the ongoing debate by acquisition of the mandatory evidence that will both resolve the debate and lead to novel avenues of research. In conclusion, the time has come to hold debate and focus on gathering and building the evidence to settle it. It does not matter who wins the debate and once there is robust evidence, we should all follow it wherever it leads.
Automatic vehicle detection and counting are considered vital in improving traffic control and management. This work presents an effective algorithm for vehicle detection and counting in complex traffic scenes by combining both convolution neural network (CNN) and the optical flow feature tracking-based methods. In this algorithm, both the detection and tracking procedures have been linked together to get robust feature points that are updated regularly every fixed number of frames. The proposed algorithm detects moving vehicles based on a background subtraction method using CNN. Then, the vehicle’s robust features are refined and clustered by motion feature points analysis using a combined technique between KLT tracker and K-means clustering. Finally, an efficient strategy is presented using the detected and tracked points information to assign each vehicle label with its corresponding one in the vehicle’s trajectories and truly counted it. The proposed method is evaluated on videos representing challenging environments, and the experimental results showed an average detection and counting precision of 96.3% and 96.8%, respectively, which outperforms other existing approaches.
We present a case of a sixty-year-old female who presented with sudden onset of painless loss of vision in one eye due to a perforated corneal ulcer, following three months of treatment with gefitinib, a selective epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor for metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung with confirmed EGFR gene mutation. The eye did not show any sign of infection or inflammation and had no associated lid problems to account for the development of corneal ulceration. The patient went on to have a corneal graft surgery but postoperatively developed corneal graft melt. This paper aims to raise awareness among ophthalmologists and oncologists of the probable association between gefitinib and corneal ulceration.
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