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Aims: Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is one of the most strongly associated risk factors for stroke. Our study aims to analyze changes in mortality from 1999 to 2020 in patients with AF and stroke. Methods: Using the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Wide‐Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC‐WONDER), we retrospectively analyzed annual age‐adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) per million from 1999 to 2020 in stroke patients with AF. Temporal trends were analyzed, and Annual Percentage Change (APC) was calculated using the JoinPoint regression model across variations in demographics (sex, race) and regional subgroups. Results: Around 490 000 deaths were reported between 1999 and 2020 from stroke and AF across the 25–85+ age group. AAMR initially decreased until 2008 (APC = –0.9), followed by an increase till 2020 (APC = 1.1). Women had a higher AAMR than men throughout the years. Non‐Hispanic white patients had a marginally higher AAMR than all other races and ethnicities. The highest AAMR was observed in the western region. States like Vermont, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Minnesota, and West Virginia were in the top 90th percentile, while Nevada, Louisiana, Florida, New York, New Mexico, and Arizona were in the bottom 10th percentile. Nonmetropolitan areas had consistently higher AAMRs throughout the 2 decades. Conclusion: An overall rise in mortality has been observed in stroke and AF patients, with a greater surge in 2019. The need for healthcare policy changes, especially in areas with high mortality and awareness of healthier lifestyle factors, can be an essential preventative measure to help mitigate growing mortality rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online discussion forums are repositories of valuable information where users interact and articulate their ideas and opinions, and share experiences about numerous topics. These online discussion forums are internet-based online communities where users can ask for help and find the solution to a problem. A new user of online discussion forums becomes exhausted from reading the significant number of irrelevant replies in a discussion. An automated discussion thread summarizing system (DTS) is necessary to create a candid view of the entire discussion of a query. Most of the previous approaches for automated DTS use the continuous bag of words (CBOW) model as a sentence embedding tool, which is poor at capturing the overall meaning of the sentence and is unable to grasp word dependency. To overcome these limitations, we introduce the LSTM Auto-encoder as a sentence embedding technique to improve the performance of DTS. The empirical result in the context of the proposed approach's average precision, recall, and F-measure with respect to ROGUE-1 and ROUGE-2 of two standard experimental datasets demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach and outperforms the state-of-the-art CBOWmodel in sentence embedding tasks and boost the performance of the automated DTS model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has a significant impact on the intensity and spread of dengue outbreaks. The objective of this study is to assess the number of dengue transmission suitable days (DTSD) in Pakistan for the baseline (1976–2005) and future (2006–2035, 2041–2070, and 2071–2099) periods under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) scenarios. Moreover, potential spatiotemporal shift and future hotspots of DTSD due to climate change were also identified. The analysis is based on fourteen CMIP5 models that have been downscaled and bias-corrected with quantile delta mapping technique, which addresses data stationarity constraints while preserving future climate signal. The results show a higher DTSD during the monsoon season in the baseline in the study area except for Sindh (SN) and South Punjab (SP). In future periods, there is a temporal shift (extension) towards pre- and post-monsoon. During the baseline period, the top ten hotspot cities with a higher frequency of DTSD are Karachi, Hyderabad, Sialkot, Jhelum, Lahore, Islamabad, Balakot, Peshawar, Kohat, and Faisalabad. However, as a result of climate change, there is an elevation-dependent shift in DTSD to high-altitude cities, e.g. in the 2020s, Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Drosh; in the 2050s, Garhi Dopatta, Quetta, and Zhob; and in the 2080s, Chitral and Bunji. Karachi, Islamabad, and Balakot will remain highly vulnerable to dengue outbreaks for all the future periods of the twenty-first century. Our findings also indicate that DTSD would spread across Pakistan, particularly in areas where we have never seen dengue infections previously. The good news is that the DTSD in current hotspot cities is projected to decrease in the future due to climate change. There is also a temporal shift in the region during the post- and pre-monsoon season, which provides suitable breeding conditions for dengue mosquitos due to freshwater; therefore, local authorities need to take adaption and mitigation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective is to determine the impact of lockdown in TB care services in Pakistan and to provide suggestion for future recommendations. Methods: Extensive literature review of published articles along with NTP reports was done. The TB case detection data for the year 2020 along with the impact of COVID-19 on TB infrastructure and resources were also reviewed. Results: There was a drop in the TB notification rate during 2020 due to COVID-19 and its ramifications on the Health Sector. Health care workers being on the frontline are more prone towards acquiring COVID-19, particularly with a marked deficiency of personal protective equipment (PPEs) that has had a demoralizing effect among health professionals. Besides this the diagnostic and treatment facilities for Tuberculosis were also interrupted badly. Conclusion: The lockdown has adversely affected the health services, particularly routine immunization and TB care services, including diagnosis and case notification which declined significantly. Moreover, upgradation of strategies for the provision of services will prove to be extremely beneficial for both COVID-19 and the people with Tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The objective of this study was to analyze the temporal trends and demographic/geographical disparities in acute myocardial infarction (AMI)-related mortality among individuals aged 15 and older across the United Sates (US)., Material and Methods: We evaluated death records from 1999 to 2020 that were obtained from the CDC WONDER database. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) per 100,000 persons and annual percent changes (APC) were computed, with stratification by year, sex, race/ethnicity, and geographic region., Results: Between 1999 and 2020, 3,016,546 AMI-related deaths were reported in the United States. The overall AAMR was 51.9 per 100,000 (95% CI: 51.8-52.0). Over the course of the study, the crude mortality rate (CMR) increased with age. Males exhibited a consistently higher overall annual AAMR (67.4, 95% CI: 67.3, 67.5) than females (39.5, 95% CI: 39.4, 39.6). In comparison to other races, Black (or African American) people had the highest death rates, with an AAMR of 58.9 (95% CI: 58.7, 59.1). The South region mortality rate (AAMR = 57.7; 95% CI: 57.6, 57.8) was higher than that of the Northeast, Midwest, and West. Specifically, Kentucky had the highest death rate (87.7, 95% CI: 87.0, 88.3), followed by Missouri (80.3, 95% CI: 79.8, 80.8) and Mississippi (85.6, 95% CI: 85.0, 86.6)., Conclusions: During the period from 1999 to 2020, males, Black/African American adults and those living in the South and other nonmetropolitan areas of the country typically had the highest AAMRs., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Termedia & Banach.)

Introduction: The rising incidence of heart failure (HF) among the U.S. population has become a major concern for healthcare providers. This study aims to assess mortality trends related to HF across different age groups, racial demographics, and geographic locations from 1999 to 2020., Material and Methods: This descriptive analysis uses death certificate data from the CDC WONDER database to track mortality trends among HF patients from 1999 to 2020. Log-linear regression models were used to delineate trends. The study used deidentified public data, complying with ethical standards., Results: Over 21 years, 1,426,657 HF-related deaths were recorded in individuals aged 15 and older, with a slight overall increase in mortality (AAPC = 0.11). Mississippi recorded the highest age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) at 58.0 per 100,000. The Midwest showed the highest regional mortality rates, while the oldest individuals (≥ 85) exhibited the highest crude mortality rate (CMR) of 663.9. Males consistently demonstrated higher AAMRs than females, despite females accounting for 57.6% of the deaths. Black ancestry individuals experienced the highest mortality rates, with rising trends, particularly in non-metropolitan areas. After 2012, significant increases in mortality were noted, especially in individuals over 85, with stable rates in younger demographics., Conclusions: Males and Black ancestry individuals are disproportionately affected, demonstrating the need for targeted interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Termedia & Banach.)