Narra X

Cancer in Indonesia: A bibliometric surveillance

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Being archipelagic in geography and heterogenous in population contributes to the challenging comprehensive cancer surveillance in Indonesia. This present study analyzed the scientific publications on cancer epidemiology in Indonesia through bibliometric analysis aiming to complement the national survey data. The bibliometric data were retrieved from Scopus database on 9 May 2023 with pre-designed keyword combinations implying ‘cancer epidemiology in Indonesia’. The data were further presented in a table, distribution map, and visualized co-occurrence network. The visualization of co-occurring keywords was performed on VosViewer, and further analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. We retrieved 1075 scientific records constituted of original articles (n=888, 82.6%), conference papers (n=102, 9.48%), and review articles (n=40, 3.72%) among others. The contributing affiliations are concentrated in Java Island, with Jakarta (n=603) as the province with the most publications. ‘Breast cancer’ (n=91) and ‘cervical cancer’ (n=39) emerged as the most frequently occurring keywords, and are assigned as the centers of research cluster, respectively. Keyword ‘breast cancer’ (total link strength, TLS=86) is connected with ‘colorectal cancer’, ‘metastasis’, ‘ovarian cancer’, and ‘prostate cancer’. Meanwhile, keyword ‘cervical cancer’ (TLS=35) is connected with ‘human papilloma virus’ and ‘knowledge’. The results are in line with the current epidemiological data of Indonesia, and they can provide different insights, especially on the research trend. Research and policy recommendations are presented in the last parts of this article.

Music therapy improves social interaction and verbal communication skill among children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Shakira Amirah, Muhammad F. Abdurrahman, Raihan F. A. Akbar, Intan C. Mulya — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is constantly increasing, in which 6 of 1000 ASD children are from Asia. Music therapy as a developing alternative is believed to improve communication and expression skills in children with ASD. Unfortunately, no specific meta-analysis has evaluated social interaction and verbal communication skills in children with ASD. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate music therapy in children with ASD. We performed a comprehensive literature review on PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Wiley, and Proquest to study the efficacy of music therapy as an ASD management therapy until October 20^th, 2022. Twenty-three randomized controlled trials involving patients with ASD, where 1129 patients were assigned in the intervention group and 759 patients – in the control group, were included in qualitative and quantitative analysis. The pooled estimates revealed that music therapy increased the social interaction score with mean difference (MD)=2.08 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.35–3.81; p<0.02), social interaction score based on Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule with MD: 0.77 (95% CI: 0.03–1.51; p<0.04), verbal communication skill based on Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised with MD=0.90 (95% CI: 0.79–1.00, p<0.01). In conclusion, music therapy has excellent efficacy and strong potency as a part of ASD management. Nevertheless, more clinical trials with similar parameters are still required to confirm these findings.

Association between admission blood sugar levels and length of stay among patients with acute heart failure: A cross-sectional study in Aceh, Indonesia

Naufal Gusti, Teuku Heriansyah, Irwan Saputra — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Heart failure persists to be a major health problem worldwide. Numerous factors associated with this condition have been studied to determine its prognosis. History of diabetes mellitus is one of the factors extensively studied, nonetheless, the correlation between acutely elevated admission blood glucose in critically ill patients or stress hyperglycemia towards the prognosis of heart failure remains inconclusive among previously reported studies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between admission blood glucose and the length of stay of acute heart failure patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia from July to August 2020. Patients’ data were retrieved from medical records documenting admission blood glucose and length of stay. Total sampling was employed, where eighty-five patients diagnosed as acute heart failure were included. The results showed that patients (n=85) had the general characteristics of being normoglycemic on admission (69.4%) and having 5–10 days length of stay (44.7%) with Killip 2 as the presiding Killip Class (50.6%). According to Gamma’s Correlation Coefficient, the p-value of this study is 0.012 (p< 0.05) with a correlation value of 0.454. Therefore, our study revealed the presence of a significant moderate-correlation between admission blood glucose and the length of stay among patients with acute heart failure.

Distribution and antimicrobial sensitivity pattern of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the clinical specimen in Aceh, Indonesia

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The development of P. aeruginosa resistance to antibiotics is increasing globally due to the inappropriate use of antibiotics. This retrospective descriptive study aimed to determine the distribution of multidrug resistant P. aeruginosa (MDRPA) and its antimicrobial sensitivity profiles. Data were taken from the bacterial identification and antibiotic sensitivity testing of clinical specimens in Aceh Provincial Referral Hospital from July 2017 to June 2019, where the VITEK® 2 Compact automatic device was used for the identification. In total, there were 307 P. aeruginosa isolates analyzed in this study. The results of this study revealed that 54.39% of P. aeruginosa isolates were multidrug resistant. The MDRPA were mostly found in sputum and pus cultures (41.91% and 23.95%, respectively). Based on the wardroom as the source, most samples came from the internal medicine unit, intensive care unit, and surgical unit with prevalence of 27.54%, 25.74%, and 20.35%, respectively. High proportion of infected patients were male (52.09%) and aged 56–65 years (23.95%). P. aeruginosa showed the highest sensitivity rate to amikacin (77.1%), followed by meropenem (74.4%), ceftazidime (70.1%), levofloxacin (65.1%), tobramycin (64.9%), piperacillin-tazobactam (64.3%), and gentamicin (61.4%). In conclusion, our data suggest that the MDRPA infection is prevalent in Aceh Province and Amikacin is recommended as the highest standard of therapy for MDRPA.

Essential oils for COVID-19 management: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Essential oils can be a beneficial adjuvant therapy in managing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy of essential oils in ameliorative COVID-19-related symptoms. Published studies reporting the efficacy of essential oils as adjuvant therapy for COVID-19 were screened on Scillit, Scopus, SciFinder, and PubMed (December 7^th, 2022). Inclusion criteria include the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) participated by those diagnosed with COVID-19 and treated with essential oils as adjuvant therapy. Quality assessment was carried out using Cochrane ‘risk-of-bias’ 2.0 tool. A total of 2112 records were retrieved from the initial screening, which was reduced to four publications (n=344 individuals). The foregoing studies reported that essential oils could improve the recovery rate, alleviate post-COVID-19 fatigue, and prevent disease progression. Regarding their potential antiviral activity, better designed studies are needed. In conclusion, essential oils as adjuvant therapy are beneficial in ameliorating mild COVID-19 symptoms.

Metal oxide/chitosan composite for organic pollutants removal: A comprehensive review with bibliometric analysis

Khairunnas Ahmad, Williams Chiari — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Organic pollutants are now a global concern because of their rapid increase following the rapid industrial growth. In tackling this problem, researchers have used chitosan that could act as adsorbing material. However, chitosan use in wastewater treatment requires further modification owing to its drawbacks of being susceptible to acidic environment and mechanically weak. Of many modifying approaches, metal-oxide embedment is perceived as promising because not only does it improve the chemical and physical properties of chitosan, but it also adds new features to the material such as being magnetic or photocatalytic. This present review describes the modification of chitosan through metal oxide embedment aiming to its utility in organic waste removal. Firstly, the definition of chitosan and the progress of its application in wastewater treatment are presented. Types of metal oxides, namely photocatalyst and magnetic iron oxide are also discussed. Embedment of metal oxides into chitosan could be done using methods such as sol-gel, high-energy ball milling, and spray-drying, where they affect the chemical and physical properties of the produced metal oxide/chitosan composites. Reported studies suggest a high percentage of organic pollutant removal, up to 100%. In addition to its removal ability, metal oxide/chitosan is also proven to be environmentally friendly and economical.