Role of Artificial Intelligence in Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysm: An Overview.

Intracranial aneurysms (IAs) are a significant public health concern. In populations without comorbidity and a mean age of 50 years, their prevalence is up to 3.2%. An efficient method for identifying subjects at high risk of an IA is warranted to provide adequate radiological screening guidelines and effectively allocate medical resources. Artificial intelligence (AI) has received worldwide attention for its impressive performance in image-based tasks. It can serve as an adjunct to physicians in clinical settings, improving diagnostic accuracy while reducing physicians' workload. AI can perform tasks such as pattern recognition, object identification, and problem resolution with human-like intelligence. Based on the data collected for training, AI can assist in decisions in a semi-autonomous manner. Similarly, AI can identify a likely diagnosis and also, select a suitable treatment based on health records or imaging data without any explicit programming (instruction set). Aneurysm rupture prediction is the holy grail of prediction modeling. AI can significantly improve rupture prediction, saving lives and limbs in the process. Nowadays, deep learning (DL) has shown significant potential in accurately detecting lesions on medical imaging and has reached, or perhaps surpassed, an expert-level of diagnosis. This is the first step to accurately diagnose UIAs with increased computational radiomicis. This will not only allow diagnosis but also suggest a treatment course. In the future, we will see an increasing role of AI in both the diagnosis and management of IAs.

Digital Eye Strain among Adults Presenting to Tertiary Care Hospital in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: The Novel Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has sent humanity indoors, replacing human contact with an electronic connection. The mandatory online classes and work from home policy to maintain the social distancing during the pandemic has forced the individual to spend most of the time in front of laptops or mobile screens. Digital eye strain is a group of vision-related symptoms that result from the continuous use of devices with digital displays, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. The present study is done to find out the prevalence of digital eye strain among the adult population in a tertiary care hospital in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done from January 2021 to July 2021 in a tertiary care hospital of Nepal after receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee (Registration number: 077/78/30). Convenience sampling was done. The sample size calculated in our study was 322. Data collection and entry were done in Microsoft Excel, point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of digital eye strain was 300 (94.3%) (91.8-96.8 at 95% Confidence Interval) among 318 respondents. Eye strain (irritation, heaviness) was the most common digital eye strain symptom 199 (62.6%) followed by the tiredness of eyes 162 (50.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The present study concluded that the prevalence of digital eye strain in the era of COVID-19 is high as compared to other studies conducted among adults.

Prevalence of Osteoporosis among Adults in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease characterized by increased bone fragility, yet underdiagnosed and undertreated. With the increase in longevity of the populace, it is becoming an urgent and serious global epidemic. This being a preventable disease, has no clinical manifestations until there is a fracture. Early diagnosis and treatment are of dire necessity. Hence the aim of our study is to find the prevalence of osteoporosis among adults attending a tertiary care hospital-based on calcaneal quantitative ultrasound. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done in a tertiary care hospital, from 15th July 2019 to 15th October 2019 after receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee (Registration number: 2075 / 76 / 119). Convenient sampling was done. Data collection and entry was done in Microsoft excel, point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: Out of 464 participants the overall prevalence of osteoporosis was 38 (8.2%) at a 95% confidence interval (5.7-10.7). Among the participants, 141 (30.4%) were male and 323 (69.6%) were female. The mean age of the participant was 41.02±14.96 years. Osteoporosis was more common in the older age group 11.66 (30.7%) in 60 years above Women were found to be more osteoporotic than men, 3.42 (9.0%) and 2.43 (6.4%) respectively. Bone mineral density and osteoporosis had a bimodal distribution, underweight 5.01 (13.2%) and obese group 5.32 (14.0%) were the two peaks. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of osteoporosis in our study is high and is consistent with other South Asian studies. Early detection of osteoporosis using calcaneal quantitative ultrasound can be a good screening tool.

Effect of an Educational Intervention on Knowledge and Perception Regarding Rational Medicine Use and Self-medication.

BACKGROUND: Rational use of medicines is important for safe and cost-effective pharmacotherapy. However, nearly half of the medicines available in the market may be used irrationally. The present study assessed the perceptions and knowledge about rational medicine use and responsible self-medication among participants before and after an educational intervention at KIST Medical College, Lalitpur. METHODS: An educational module was conducted among healthcare professionals, media personnel and female community health volunteers. The questionnaire was administered before and immediately after the module. The areas addressed were rational medicine use, ethical prescribing, rational drug use situation in Nepal, pharmaceutical promotion, rational self-medication, safe use of antibiotics, and drug use problems in Nepal. RESULTS: Among healthcare professionals, the rational drug use situation in Nepal and the total score significantly increased post-intervention (p<0.05). Among media personnel the mean scores increased significantly in pharmaceutical promotion and drug use problems in Nepal areas but there was a significant decrease in safe use of antibiotics. The pre-intervention pharmaceutical promotion score was significantly higher among healthcare professionals compared to media personnel while the rational self-medication scores were highest among female community health volunteers, safe use of antibiotics scores were highest among the media personnel. Post-intervention the mean pharmaceutical promotion scores was highest among healthcare professionals, rational self-medication scores among female community health volunteers, safe use of antibiotics, drug use problems in Nepal and total scores were highest among the media personnel. CONCLUSIONS: There were differences in the mean pre-intervention scores among different subgroups. A single session may not be enough to bring about significant changes in knowledge and perception. The retention of knowledge could be measured in future studies.