Background: Wet cupping, furthermore mentioned cupping, decreases blood pressures through the level of negative air pressures added by hydrostatics filtration pressure to reinforce the power of fluids filtration in capillaries. However, an appropriate negative air pressure to decrease blood pressure remains an uncertainty. Purpose:This study aimed to analyze negative air pressure differences on cupping in decreasing blood pressures in hypertensive patients. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental design conducted in three Community Health Centers in Langsa City, Aceh, Indonesia. The samples were 36 hypertensive males with age from 45 to 55, who were randomly stratified into two groups with cupping pressures 400 mbar (n=18) as the control group; and 540 mbar (n=18) as the intervention group. The cupping session was performed to each group on T1 (alkahil) point and in the middle line of both shoulders blade points. The systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressures (DBP) were measured by validated automatic sphygmomanometer. The follow-up periods were one week and two weeks. The data were then analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Cupping pressure of 400 mbar decreased the mean of SBP and DPB with a pvalue of 0.450 and 0.026, respectively after two weeks of intervention. Meanwhile, cupping pressure of 540 mbar decreased the mean of SBP and DBP with a p-value of 0.006 and 0.057, respectively. Tests of within-subjects resulted in the p-value of 0.250 (SBP) and 0.176 (DBP) after two weeks of intervention. There were no significant differences in SBP and DBP between the intervention group and the control group. Conclusion: The cupping pressure between 400 mbar and 540 mbar could reduce blood pressure; however, the cupping pressure of 540 mbar yielded greater effect in decreasing blood pressure than the 400 mbar. Negative air vacuum pressure loads on cupping to decrease blood pressure should be considered between 400 to 540 mbar, and further studies are needed.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most diagnosed cancer in men. Early diagnosis and right management of PCa is critical to reducing deaths; the life expectancy is the main factors to be considered in the management of PCa. Among patients who die from PCa, the incidence of skeletal involvement appears to be >85%. Bone scan (BS) is the most common method for monitoring bone metastases in patients with PCa. The extent of bone metastasis was also associated with patient survival until now there is no clinically useful technique for measuring bone tumors and includes this information in the risk assessment. An alternative approach is to calculate a BS index (BSI) and it has shown clinical significance as a prognostic imaging biomarker. Some computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) systems have been developed to measure BSI and are now available. The aim of this study was to investigate automated BSI (aBSI) measurements as predictors’ survival in PCa. Retrospectively cohort studied fifty patients with PCa who had undergone BS between January 2010 and December 2011 at our institution. All data collected was updated up to August 2016. CAD system analyzing BS images to automatically compute BSI measurements. Patients were stratified into three BSI categories BSI value 0, BSI value ≤1 and BSI value >1. Kaplan–Meier estimates of the survival function and the log-rank test were used to indicate a significant difference between groups stratified in accordance with the BSI values. A total of 35 subjects deaths were registered, with a median survival time 36 months after the follow-up BS of 5 years. Subjects with low aBSI value had longer overall survival in comparison with the other subjects (P = 0.004). aBSI measurements were shown to be a strong prognostic survival indicator in PCa; survival is poor in high-BSI value.

The aim of this study was to determine the role of antithyroglobulin antibody (ATA) serum as a marker of successful I-131 ablation therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients with low serum thyroglobulin (Tg). A retrospective study was conducted on 60 patients (10 males and 50 females). All patients underwent posttotal thyroidectomy and received 2.96 to 3 GBq I-131 ablation. Subjects were divided into two groups with succesful and unsuccessful I-131 ablation therapies. The data of age, gender, histopathologic type, tumor size, and metastasis were collected. Preablation serum Tg and ATA level (Tg1 and ATA1) 6–12 months after ablation (Tg2 and ATA2) were measured. The success of ablation therapy was evaluated by diagnostic whole body scan (DxWBS) 6–12 months after ablation. There were no significant differences in age, gender, type of histopathology, tumor size, and nodal metastasis between the two groups. ATA2 ≤30 kIU/L were found in 23 (62.2%) subjects with successful ablation therapy, and ATA2 >30 kIU/L in 16 (69.6%) subjects belonged to the unsuccessful group (P = 0.017). Changes between ATA1 and ATA2 levels did not differ significantly in both the groups (P = 0.062). Tg1 <10 mg/L was found in 26 (57.8%) subjects with successful therapy (P = 0.037). Multivariate analysis showed ATA2 and Tg1 as the independent factors for the success of ablation therapy (P = 0.007 and 0.015). Adjusted odds ratio of postablation ATA was 5.379 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.590 to 18.203] and preablation Tg was 5.822 (95% CI 1.418 to 23.902). ATA levels at 6–12 months after ablation, by considering the preablation Tg levels, is a useful marker to determine successful ablation therapy in WDTC patients with low serum Tg. Changes in serum ATA levels, although not statistically significant, can provide additional information about the course of the disease.

Background: Autopsy rate had declined dramatically throughout the world for the past decades. This phenomenon has raised concerns of the medical world. Factors that contributed to this decline include lack of knowledge regarding autopsy among the people, religious reasons, unenthusiastic pathologists and others. This study was conducted to discover the community knowledge and perception of autopsy at Jatinangor, West Java. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted in Jatinangor during the period of August to October 2013. One hundred and ten respondents were included in this study by random sampling. After written informed consent, respondents were given a questionnaire. Collected data were presented in the form of percentages in tables. Results: Most of the respondents were from the age group of 41-50, entrepreneur and senior high school. Eighty seven (79.09%) respondents had heard about the term "autopsy", but only 66 (75.86%) of them claimed that they knew about autopsy. However, only 53 from 87 respondents (60.92%) truly knew about autopsy. From 110 respondents, 58 (52.72%) of them knew the reasons to perform autopsy. Fifty seven (51.81%) respondents would allow autopsy to be performed on themselves or family members. The main reason was given to discover the exact cause of death. The reasons of autopsy refusal were afraid of religion concerns and respect for the human body. Conclusions: There are still members of the community who do not know about autopsy and its purposes. It is recommended that the government improves the community knowledge through various activities and programs. [AMJ.2015;2(3):303-307]