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Risk and protective factors of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Singapore

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted people’s well-being globally.1 Individuals faced several stressors during the pandemic, including fear of contracting the disease, experiencing severe...

Self-esteem and positive body image to overcome female sexual dysfunction

Human sexuality is arguably one of the main pillars of health, like nutrition and sleep. Improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic biotechnologies have enabled focus...

Antiphospholipid and other autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients: A Singapore series

Dear Editor, Thrombosis is an unexpected complication of COVID-19 initially reported in 3 patients from China.1 These patients tested positive for immunoglobulin (Ig) A anticardiolipin...

Interaction of sex and diabetes in Asian patients with heart failure with mildly reduced left ventricular ejection fraction

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common comorbidity worldwide with global prevalence among adults above 18 years of age increasing from 4.7% in 1980 to...

Global monkeypox outbreak 2022: First case series in Singapore

Monkeypox has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. Up until 2022, most cases of monkeypox have been reported in parts of...

The global emergence of monkeypox

Monkeypox is so named because the poxvirus was first identified in 2 outbreaks among cynomolgus monkeys housed at the Statens Serum Institut, Denmark, in...

Perception of disease, well-being and financial burden by patients with chronic hepatitis B: A self-reported assessment

Dear Editor, Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection affects approximately 248 million individuals in the world1 and 3.6% of the Singapore population.2 Given the natural history...

Death and cardiovascular outcomes in end-stage renal failure patients on different modalities of dialysis

End-stage renal failure (ESRF) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, including Asia.1 In Singapore, incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage...

Survival outcome of haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a challenging and growing health issue, with number of patients increasing globally. The use of dialysis has greatly improved...

A Case Report of Neutrophilic Eccrine Hidradenitis in a Patient Receiving Chemotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia

Neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis (NEH) is a neutrophilic dermatosis primarily affecting the eccrine glands and occurs most commonly in patients undergoing chemotherapy for a malignancy. This...

Glaucoma Pattern Amongst the Elderly Chinese in Singapore

Glaucoma is a major cause of world blindness in developing and developed nations. The WHO Global data on blindness show that over half of...

Risk Factors for Predicting Mortality in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit

Following the rapid advances in medical therapy and critical care technology over the past 30 years, coupled with the spiralling cost of medical care,...

Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Patients with Resected Dukes’ C and High-risk B2 Colon Cancer with Fluorouracil and Levamisole

Carcinoma of the large bowel is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in Singapore. Although the great majority of patients are discovered at...

Experience with a Nine-step Policy Dealing with Requests for Medically Inappropriate Interventions for Cancer

Although great strides have been made in treating cancers, a significant number of patients still reach the point at which no curative treatment is...

Invasive Cancer after Treatment of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

The objective of a cervical screening programme is to prevent invasive cancer of the cervix by detecting and treating pre-invasive disease of the cervix....

The Polarprobe—Emerging Technology for Cervical Cancer Screening

Cervical cancer is a preventable disease that affects nearly half a million women worldwide. The Papanicolaou smear has been used for screening for over...

Occult Virilizing Ovarian Tumours in Postmenopausal Women: Problems in Evaluation with Reference to a Case

A remarkable variety of endocrinologic disorders may cause virilization syndromes. This can pose a diagnostic dilemma to even the most experienced clinicians. This article is...

Occult Virilizing Ovarian Tumours in Postmenopausal Women: Problems in Evaluation with Reference to a Case

A remarkable variety of endocrinologic disorders may cause virilization syndromes. This can pose a diagnostic dilemma to even the most experienced clinicians. This article is...

Pelvic Spleen Masquerading as an Ovarian Neoplasm

A 53-year-old Caucasian woman, a receptionist in a general practice, was referred to the gynaecology outpatient clinic with an 18-month history of heavy, irregular...

A Case Report—Delayed Vesicocutaneous Fistula After Radiation Therapy for Advanced Vulvar Cancer

To our knowledge this is the first reported case of an isolated vesicocutaneous fistula related to previous radiation therapy for recurrent vulvar cancer. This article...

Optimal Treatment in Gestational Trophoblastic Disease

Gestational trophoblastic diseases (GTD) encompass a spectrum of interrelated conditions: Hydatidiform mole (HM) Invasive mole (IM) Choriocarcinoma (CC) Placental site trophoblastic tumour (PSTT) This article is available only as...

Fallopian Tube Carcinoma—A Review

Fallopian tube cancer is the least common of gynaecological malignancies. It was first described by Renaud in 1847. This article is available only as a...

Current Management of Early Vulvar Cancer

Carcinoma of the vulva is an uncommon malignancy, but one that is amenable to early diagnosis if symptoms and signs are appropriately investigated. Although...

Topoisomerase-I Inhibitors in Gynaecologic Tumours

Topoisomerases are essential nuclear enzymes with a multiplicity of cellular functions involving DNA replication, RNA transcription, mitosis, and chromosome condensation. Two classes have been...

Screening for Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the most common gynaecological malignancy with over 5000 new cases diagnosed every year in the UK and 22 000 in the...

Biomarkers in Carcinoma of the Cervix: Emphasis on Tissue-related Factors and Their Potential Prognostic Factors

Accurate staging is of utmost importance in determining the prognosis of carcinoma of the cervix. Demographic features such as race and socio-economic status have...

The Management Dilemma of the Mildly Abnormal Smear: Fact or Fiction?

Carcinoma of the cervix is still a relatively common gynaecological malignancy. However, despite being potentially preventable it still claims the lives of many women...

Adenocarcinoma of the Cervix

It is clear from studies in Canada, Scandinavia, and more recently the United Kingdom, that routine Pap smear screening has not only reduced the...

Malignant Ovarian Germ Cell Tumours: Experience in the National University Hospital of Singapore

One of the most remarkable advances in the management of gynaecological cancers is in malignant ovarian germ cell tumours. Before the early 70s, some...

A Phase II Study of Combined CPT-11 and Mitomycin-C in Platinum Refractory Clear Cell and Mucinous Ovarian Carcinoma

Platinum resistance, either de novo or acquired, is a major obstacle in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer. Platinum-resistance has been classified into the...

Single Agent Paclitaxel in Resistant and Relapsed Epithelial Ovarian Cancer After First-line Platinum-based Chemotherapy—Experience in an Asian Population

Ovarian carcinoma ranks fourth among causes of death in women and is the leading cause of death from gynaecological malignancies in Western countries. In...

Uterine Papillary Serous Carcinoma—The KK Hospital Experience

Endometrial carcinoma comprises a morphologically heterogeneous group of tumours. Several authors during the 1960s and 1970s described an unusual variant of endometrial cancer containing...

Radiotherapy as Local Adjuvant Treatment for Endometrial Carcinoma—A Review of 45 Patients

Radiotherapy as an adjunct to surgery has long been used in the management of endometrial carcinoma with the intent to improve local tumour control...

Outcome of Obstructive Uropathy After Pelvic Irradiation in Patients with Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

Radiotherapy is the mainstay treatment for locally advanced carcinoma of the cervix. It is also administered as an adjuvant therapy to patients deemed at...

The Surgical Management of Colorectal Complications from Irradiation for Carcinoma of the Cervix

Radiation bowel injury is a significant clinical problem because of the technical difficulties of surgery. Among the more common causes is radiation of carcinoma...

Adjuvant Chemotherapy in “High Risk” Patients after Wertheim Hysterectomy—10-year Survivals

Wertheim radical hysterectomy has today become an accepted method of management of stage IB and early stage IIA cervical carcinoma, particularly in young patients...

A Review of Patients with High-risk Carcinoma of the Cervix Treated with Combined Surgery and Postoperative Radiotherapy

It is generally accepted that early stage invasive carcinoma of the cervix, stage I to stage IIA disease, can be treated with equal effectiveness...

Outcome of Early Cervical Carcinoma Treated by Wertheim Hysterectomy with Selective Postoperative Radiotherapy

Cancer of the cervix is the fourth most common cancer in females in Singapore after breast, colorectal and lung cancers. It forms 7.8% of...

Gynaecologic Oncology—The Next Lap

Cancer of the pelvic reproductive organs and external genitalia accounts for one in six cancers in women. It can occur in women of all...

Infections in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer are especially vulnerable to infection because of immunosuppression related to their underlying illness, the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy....

Childhood Leukaemia: Towards an Integrated Psychosocial Intervention Programme in Singapore

In the last two decades there has been a surge of interest concerning the psychosocial correlates of life-threatening illnesses. Research in this area has...

Caudal Morphine in Paediatric Patients: A Comparison of Two Different Doses in Children after Major Urogenital Surgery

The use of caudal preservative-free morphine for postoperative analgesia in children has gained popularity since it was first described by Jensen. Several studies have...

A Retrospective Study of Infants with Severe Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN) Managed without Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)

Persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) is an important cause of neonatal mortality amongst infants who are of term or post-term gestation. The most severely ill...

Five Paediatric Case Reports of the Use of Adenosine in Supraventricular Tachycardia

Adenosine has been shown to be effective in terminating supraventricular tachycardia in adults and children. However, the use of adenosine has not been previously...

Use of Central Venous Lines in Paediatrics—A Local Experience

Peripheral access by venous cut down, once popular in the 1950s and 1960s, has almost become obsolete with the introduction of the Seldinger technique...

Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit for Poisoning

The study of poisoning has been relatively neglected in Singapore. A check through the Infogate database of the National University of Singapore Library revealed...

A Retrospective Study of Near-drowning Victims Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit

Drowning victims suffocate from submersion. This may lead to immediate death or, if they survive, brain damage if significant cerebral hypoxia is present. This article...

A Case Series of Paget’s Disease of Bone: Diagnosing a Rather Uncommon Condition in Singapore

Sir James Paget’s description in 1877 of “a form of chronic inflammation of bones” which now bears his name was based entirely on clinical...

Survey of Aerobic Bacterial Infections in Paediatric Surgical Intensive Care Unit Patients

Data on infections in paediatric surgical patients are few in the literature. Although there are many studies on infection in adult surgical and paediatric...

9th Seah Cheng Siang Memorial Lecture: Gastric Cancer—Where are we now?

The last two decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the understanding of gastric cancer: a rapid decline in global incidence, its association with Helicobacter...

One-year Review of Pityriasis Rosea at the National Skin Centre, Singapore

Pityriasis rosea is a common, self-limited disorder of unknown but suspected viral aetiology, that develops abruptly with few or no prodromal symptoms. Classically, the...

Perinatal Drug Abuse in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital

In recent years, perinatal drug abuse has been emerging as an area of major concern for the perinatologists. Chasnoff found the prevalence of substance...

Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in Patients with Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma of the Undifferentiated Type

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) of the undifferentiated type has a unique geographic distribution and is rather different, biologically and aetiologically, from squamous cell cancer of...

Parainfluenza Type 3 Viral Outbreak in a Neonatal Nursery

Parainfluenza viruses are relatively large RNA paramyxoviruses. Four serologic types cause disease in humans. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on...

T Wave Alternans and Acute Rheumatic Myocarditis: A Case Report

T wave alternans, an electrical cardiac alternans in which there is a beat-to-beat variation in the amplitude, shape or the polarity of the T...

Cancer Gene Therapy—Fantasy or Foresight?

Genes define life, at least in its biological sense. The prospect of being able to manipulate human biological processes through genetic engineering understandably evokes...

A Preliminary Study of the Immunohistochemical Detection of a Novel Tumour Marker, 22-1-1 Antigen, in Gynaecological Cancer Specimens

Monoclonal antibodies expressed against specific tumour cells can play a useful role in the study and management of such cancers. Such antibodies have been...

3rd Yahya Cohen Lecture: The Role of the Myofibroblast-Like Cell in Hepatocellular Carcinoma—Host Defence?

It is indeed a great honour for me to be named the third Yahya Cohen lecturer and I would like to express my deepest...

1998 Runme Shaw Memorial Lecture: Somatic Evolution of Cancer

The interpretation of cancer as a somatic evolutionary process involving genetic mutation followed by selection, goes back to the early years of this century....

The Future of Medicine from the Standpoint of the Practising Paediatrician

From the time of recorded history of medicine, the doctor whether he be the ancient healer or the modern medical practitioner, the doctor had...

Hepatopulmonary Syndrome: A Rare Complication of Chronic Liver Disease in Children

Children with chronic liver disorders may present with dysfunction of other organ systems. Encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding, failure to thrive and impaired renal function are...

Prognostic Factors in Endometrial Carcinoma

In the United States of America, endometrial carcinoma is the most common cancer of the female genital tract and has an annual incidence of...

Continuous Infusion 5-fluorouracil as Salvage Chemotherapy in Patients with Advanced Colorectal Cancer

Studies have shown beyond doubt that chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer prolongs survival, impedes progression and stabilises disease. Compared with supportive care alone, it...

Bidirectional Cavopulmonary Anastomosis

Children with complex congenital heart disease and a functional single ventricle may not be ideal candidates for a Fontan procedure. A staged approach to...

Retinopathy of Prematurity in Very Low Birth Weight Infants

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which could lead to visual impairment and blindness, is a recognised serious morbidity amongst surviving premature infants. The inverse relationship...

Effect of Antiangiogenic Agents on Experimental Animal Models of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Metastatic spread is the principal reason of treatment failure in solid tumours. Surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy have not manifestly altered the prognosis for...

Murine Metastatic Tumour Models for Cancer Gene Therapy Research

In the evaluation of any new cancer treatment, the use of appropriate experimental animal tumour models to bridge the gap between in vitro discovery...

An Animal Model for the Study of Hepatic Stellate Cell and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Interaction

Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are mesenchymal cells that are prominent in various forms of liver injury, in particular with cirrhosis or carbon tetrachloride-induced fibrosis....

Synergistic Effect of Hepatitis B Virus and Aflatoxin B1 in Hepatocarcinogenesis in Tree Shrews

Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the commonest cancers in some parts of the world including several areas in China. The geographically distinct...

The Expression of Insulin-like Growth Factor II, Hepatitis B Virus X Antigen and p21 in Experimental Hepatocarcinogenesis in Tree Shrews

Hepatocarcinogenesis is a multistage and multifunctional process. Epidemiological studies indicate that contamination of food with aflatoxin B, (AFB,) and chronic infection with hepatitis B...

Echocardiographic Features and Management of Neonatal Ductal Aneurysm

Previously thought to be a rare condition, aneurysms of the ductus arteriosus have been increasingly reported in the medical literature over the past few...

Cross-Sectional Study of Near-work and Myopia in Kindergarten Children in Singapore

Myopia is the commonest eye disease worldwide, and is especially prevalent in certain Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. Physiologic myopia...

Extended Resection of Locally Advanced (T4) Stomach Cancer

Cancer is the most common cause of death in Singapore. Although there is a gradual decline in incidence of stomach cancer over the years,...

Transaminitis in Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy

Raised aminotransferase levels, especially that of alanine transaminase (ALT), have been traditionally attributed to liver pathology rather than to muscle disorders. However, raised alanine...

Granuloma Annulare: A Review of 41 Cases at the National Skin Centre

Granuloma annulare (GA) is a benign, inflammatory disorder of the skin that has no proven aetiology or widely accepted theory of pathogenesis. There are...

Twenty-four hour, Non-invasive, Neonatal Chromosome Analysis—Application in a Case of Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis

Chromosome analysis in neonates requires venisection and this is sometimes both difficult and distressing. In addition, results can at best take 3 days but...

Nanospheres of Biodegradable Polymers: A System for Clinical Administration of an Anticancer Drug Paclitaxel (Taxol®)

Paclitaxel (Taxol®) is a diterpenoid extracted from the bark of a rare, slow growing Pacific yew or Western yew tree (Taxus brevifolia). Its antitumour...

Design of Phase I and II Clinical Trials in Oncology and Ethical Issues Involved

Drug development is costly and time-consuming in terms of economic, patient and research resources. An integrated effort involving academia, industry, and regulatory authorities is...

Sandhoff Disease—A Case Report of 3 Siblings and a Review of Potential Therapies

Sandhoff disease is a rare inborn error of metabolism characterised by the absence of both β-hexosaminidase A and B, resulting in an accumulation of...

A Case Report on the Perinatal Management of a 30-week Preterm Baby with Congenital Complete Heart Block

The association between congenital complete heart block (CHB) and maternal autoimmune disorders has been described for many years. Maternal systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is...

Spectrum of Abnormal Mammographic Findings and Their Predictive Value for Malignancy in Singaporean Women from a Population Screening Trial

While screening mammography can detect early breast cancers, a significant proportion of asymptomatic women are subject to unnecessary workup and surgery when biopsies for...

Hereditary Breast Cancer: A Brief Overview

Worldwide, breast cancer is the third most common form of cancer, after lung and stomach cancer, and it is the most common form among...

Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome—A Complex Genetic Disorder

Minimal change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS) is the most common cause of childhood nephrotic syndrome. It is characterised by the presence of gross proteinuria, hypoalbuminaemia,...

Update of Genetics in Colorectal Carcinomas: Genomic Instability and Somatic Evolution

The hypothesis that carcinogenesis occurs through stepwise accumulation of mutations1 has now been generally accepted. However, there is continual dispute over how carcinogenesis can...

Myopia: Gene-environment Interaction

Myopia affects up to 70% of adults in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. The prevalence rates in these Asian countries are higher than...

Candida Arthritis in a Premature Infant Treated Successfully with Oral Fluconazole for Six Months

Candida arthritis in premature infants is regarded as a rare condition. The largest published series of 8 cases from one institution was from Bombay,...

Incidence of Ischaemic Heart Disease and Stroke in Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore: Singapore Cardiovascular Cohort Study

Comparisons of disease frequency in different ethnic groups help to unravel the contributions of nature and nurture in their aetiology and to identify environmental...

DNA Testing for Fragile X Syndrome in 255 Males from Special Schools in Singapore

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of mental retardation, affecting approximately 1 in 1250 males and 1 in 2500 females. It...

Initial Experience of Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation of Supraventricular Tachycardia in Paediatric Patients

Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is well-recognised as one of the commonest rhythm disorders in children. There may be few symptoms, but many experience palpitations,...

Pseudomembranous Colitis in a Patient Treated with Paclitaxel for Carcinoma of the Breast: A Case Report

Paclitaxel was discovered in 1963 as a crude extract from the bark of the pacific yew Taxus brevifolia. Since its development, a range of...

Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma Presenting with Biliary Ductal Invasion—A Case Report

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumour worldwide. The local incidence of HCC is 40 per 100,000 in males and 20 per 100,000...

Survival of Colorectal Cancer Patients in Singapore by Anatomic Subsite: A Population-based Study

Colorectal cancer incidence rates rank second in most developed countries and have been rising rapidly in urban societies of East Asia. Despite much effort...

Pathology of Ductal Carcinoma In situ of the Breast: A Heterogeneous Entity in Need of Greater Understanding

Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy in Singapore women, with an age-standardised rate of 46.1 per 100,000 per year and an annual increase in...

Two Cases of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma

A 44-year-old Indian man was found to have a raised carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (49.5 μg/L) detected on routine medical examination in February 2000....

Diagnosing and Prognosticating Acute Meningitis in Young Infants within 24 Hours of Admission

Meningitis is an important cause of fever in young infants (infants 90 days old or younger). Most cases of meningitis are acute meningitis which...

Book Review

The above is a textbook of medicine written by Singapore doctors and published in Singapore. It is difficult not to be over-enthusiastic about it...

Primary Anorectal Malignant Melanoma: Clinical Features and Results of Surgical Therapy in Singapore—A Case Series

Malignant melanoma arising from the anal canal was first described in 1857. It is uncommon, comprising only about 1% of all anal canal tumours. This...

Enteral Nutrition of the Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) Infant

Optimal nutrition is critical in the management of the preterm infant. The fetus in utero receives continuous intravenous nutrition that is interrupted when prematurely...

A Case Series of Six Children with Primary Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an uncommon but serious and debilitating disorder seen in children and adults. By definition, it is an elevation of...

2nd Chapter of Paediatricians Lecture: The Future of Paediatrics in Singapore

When I was first invited to give this 2nd Chapter of Paediatricians Lecture by the Chapter, my obvious answer was no. I could think...

A Case of Alpha-Fetoprotein-Producing Gastric Cancer

A 57-year-old accountant presented to her doctors in a neighbouring country in early October 1998 with problems of easy bruising, bleeding gums, one single...

Case Report: Acute Tumour Lysis Syndrome

Acute tumour lysis syndrome (ATLS) is one of the most urgent of all oncological treatment-related complications. It has a broad impact on organ dysfunction,...

Liver Transplantation in a Child With Severe Hypercholesterolaemia in Alagille Syndrome

Alagille syndrome (AS) or arteriohepatic dysplasia is a genetic disorder transmitted in an autosomal dominant inheritance. The chromosomal abnormality has been identified to the...

The Use of Vigabatrin in Infantile Spasms in Asian Children

Infantile spasms are a form of age-dependent myoclonic epilepsy that is difficult to control. Agents such as adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and prednisolone have been...

12th Chapter of Surgeons Lecture: Shifting Paradigms in the Management of Breast Cancer—A Surgical Perspective

The recorded history of breast cancer management spans four millennia. This story about breast cancer management is also one about change, about resistance to...

CerbB2 Status in Breast Cancer: Pathologic Issues

The cerbB2 gene, also known as Her2/neu, encodes a transmembrane cell receptor with tyrosine kinase activity and epidermal growth factor receptor homology. All normal...

Intravenous Adrenaline or Vasopressin in Sudden Cardiac Arrest: A Literature Review

Of the approximately 15,000 deaths that occur in Singapore every year, about 25% are from cardiac causes; of which, some 30% to 40% occur...

Cancer Incidence in Singapore, 1998 to 1999

The Singapore Cancer Registry has been monitoring the trends in cancer incidence since 1968. It publishes 5-yearly incidence figures for the periods 1968-1972, 1973-1977,...

High-dose Therapy followed by Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a disorder in which malignant plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and produce an immunoglobulin, usually monoclonal IgG or...

Efficacy and Tolerability of Irinotecan in Patients with Advanced Colorectal Cancer in Singapore

Colorectal cancer is the second most commonly encountered malignancy in the developed countries; in Singapore, it is the commonest cancer. With early detection, patients...

Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the Older Population in Singapore

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in persons older than 50 years are rarely studied because STDs are more common in young people. There is very...

The Mastectomy Clinical Pathway: What Has It Achieved?

In an era of increasing healthcare cost and scarce resources, the tension between the cost and quality of healthcare demands not only effective but...

Agreement or Prediction: Asking and Answering the Right Question

In an article published in this journal, Chia discusses the difference between measuring association and agreement. In this paper, we extend the discussion to...

Preliminary Experience in Radionuclide Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using Hepatic Intra-arterial Radio-conjugates

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide. In Singapore, the age-standardised incidence rate is 18.9 per 100,000 per year. This article is available only...

Management of Haematologic Malignancies in Pregnancy

Malignancy complicates the course of about 1 in 1000 pregnancies and is the second leading cause of death in women of reproductive age. The...

Two-year Outcome of Normal-birth-weight Infants Admitted to a Singapore Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

With the rapid advances in the field of neonatal intensive care, the focus of interest has been on the very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infant in recent...

Bullous Pemphigoid Seen at the National Skin Centre: A 2-year Retrospective Review

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering disorder affecting mainly the elderly. It is characterised by autoantibodies to the basement membrane zone (BMZ),...

Re: 188Rhenium-TDD-Lipiodol in Treatment of Inoperable Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma—A Case Report

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy that is best treated by surgery. However, in the vast majority, surgery is not possible and alternative...

Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia and Chronic Lung Disease of Infancy: Strategies for Prevention and Management

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and chronic lung disease of infancy (CLD) are two chronic pulmonary conditions which are the result of incomplete resolution or abnormal...

Intussusception: A Three-Year Review

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in infants and young children. It occurs when one segment of the intestines telescopes into...

Clinical Update on Osteoporosis

Fractures, the most serious complication of osteoporosis, are increasing and constitute an evolving public health problem in terms of disability, mortality and cost. A...

An Asian Perspective to the Problem of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is regarded as an important public health problem in many Caucasian populations. Much of the research on epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, genetic and molecular...

Osteoporotic Hip Fractures in Singapore—Costs and Patient’s Outcome

Singapore is facing a rapidly ageing population. Osteoporosis, which is an age-related illness, will become an increasing problem. Osteoporotic hip fracture, because of the...

Severe Newborn Encephalopathy Unrelated to Intrapartum Hypoxic Events: 3 Case Reports

Since Little’s article of 1862, it was popularly believed that brain damage in the majority of cases of cerebral palsy occurs during labour and...

A Case Series of Pre-Viable Severe Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome

Monozygotic twinning has an incidence of approximately 3.5 per 1000 pregnancies. Only 25% of monozygotic twins have a dichorionic placenta. This article is available only...

Idiopathic Chronic Fetomaternal Haemorrhage Resulting in Hydrops – A Case Report

Small amounts (<0.1 mL) of fetal blood are commonly found in maternal circulation. Massive fetomaternal haemorrhage (FMH) involves fetal blood loss into the maternal...

Carcinoma of the Cervix: Role of MR Imaging

In females with cancer, cervical carcinoma is second to breast cancer in both incidence and mortality worldwide. About 465,000 new cases are diagnosed each...

Imaging of Paediatric Mediastinal Masses

A review of mediastinal masses in children, emphasising imaging features, is important for several reasons. Firstly, the mediastinum is the most common location for...

Radionuclide Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide. It is a major cause of death from cancer in East Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea,...

Non-consensual Double Reading in the Singapore Breast Screening Project: Benefits and Limitations

Double reading of mammogram is not the standard practice in the United Kingdom National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP). Rather, single reading of...

The Relationship Between Scoring Systems and Cytokine Levels in Neonatal Sepsis

In newborn infants, the early diagnosis of sepsis is an important problem because the early signs and symptoms of septicaemia in term or preterm...

Clinical Characteristics of an Outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease in Singapore

The enterovirus family causes a wide array of illnesses, some easily recognised clinically and others diagnosed as non-specific viral illnesses. This large family of...

Measuring Quality of Life in Chinese Cancer Patients: A New Version of the Functional Living Index for Cancer (Chinese)

Health-related quality of life (QOL) is recognised as an important aspect of patient care. In oncology studies, it may stand as the primary end-point....

Perinatal Care at the Threshold of Viability—From Principles to Practice

One of the major challenges in neonatal-perinatal medicine in the new century is the optimal management of the mother and infant when delivery is...

Eight-year Outcome of Very-low-birth-weight Infants Born in KK Hospital

The outcome of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) premature babies with birth weights of <1500 g has remained an area of great concern for both parents and...

Long-term Follow-up and Outcome of Extremely-low-birth-weight (ELBW) Infants

With the progressive improvement in the survival of premature neonates, including those born at the extreme edge of viability, there has been a great...

Exogenous Surfactant Therapy in Newborn Infants

Exogenous surfactant therapy is widely used in the management of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and may have a role in the management of...

The Use and Abuse of Steroids in Perinatal Medicine

Preterm birth, delivery prior to 37 weeks of gestational age, accounts for a major and disproportionate amount of infant and neonatal morbidity and mortality....

Mass Newborn Screening in Singapore—Position and Projections

Mass newborn screening is an essential preventative public health programme which aims to diagnose, in the presymptomatic phase, diseases that have a better outcome...

Neonatology In Singapore: The Way We Were, The Way Forward

Over a span of 35 years of my working life, I have witnessed the growth of, and also grown together with, neonatology in Singapore....

Chorioamnionitis and Outcome in Extremely Preterm Infants

Preterm delivery is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, especially among the 1% to 2% infants delivered at less than 32 weeks. Chorioamnionitis is...

Challenges in Perinatal Medicine

One of the significant milestones in the perinatal care in Singapore is the birth of the Perinatal Society of Singapore in March 1989. This...

Predicting Significant Hyperbilirubinaemia and Early Discharge for Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficient Newborns

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency occurs in 2.5% of Singapore’s population, and affected newborns are at risk for severe neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia and kernicterus. In the...

Autoimmune Liver Disease in Children

Autoimmune liver disorders are inflammatory liver diseases characterised histologically by a dense mononuclear cell infiltrate, including plasma cells, in the portal tract (Fig. 1)...

HIV/AIDS in Children

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Asia has grown from a handful of cases to a major...

The Molecular Biology of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis from Gastrointestinal Cancer

The term “peritoneal carcinomatosis” was first used by Sampson in 1931 to describe the intra-abdominal spread of ovarian carcinoma. Although ovarian cancers account for...

Colorectal Hepatic Metastases: Role of Radiofrequency Ablation

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in Singapore, accounting for 15.9% of all cancers registered with the Singapore Cancer Registry in the...

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in the Management of Colorectal Metastases: A Review of the Literature

Colorectal cancer accounts for the most number of deaths after lung cancer, both in the West as well as locally in Singapore. Liver is...

Hepatic Resection for Colorectal Metastases to the Liver: The National Cancer Centre/Singapore General Hospital Experience

Colorectal carcinoma is the fourth most common malignancy and the second leading cause of death worldwide. Although surgical resection in combination with adjuvant chemotherapy...

Computed Tomographic Appearance of Colorectal Hepatic Metastases

It is important to recognise the computed tomography (CT) appearance of hepatic metastases from colorectal primaries, as resection in a selected group may offer...

Current Status in Imaging of Colorectal Liver Metastases

Colorectal cancer is a common primary that metastasizes to the liver. About 20% of patients with colorectal cancer will have detectable metastases at the...

Current Concepts of Tumour Metastasis

Tumour metastasis, or the spread of cancer cells from a primary tumour to distant sites, remains the principal cause of treatment failure and poor...

Chemoprevention of Colorectal Cancer – Experimental Approach and Clinical Applications

The age-old adage of “Prevention is Better than Cure” is still very relevant in today’s practice of medicine. Many randomised population trials have already...

Practical Issues in Adjuvant Therapy for Rectal Cancer

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Total Mesorectal Excision (TME) – Twenty Years On

In 1982, Heald et al1 at the Basingstoke District General Hospital introduced the concept of total mesorectal excision (TME) as a means of performing...

Flat and Depressed Lesions of the Colon and Rectum: Pathogenesis and Clinical Management

It was previously thought that the vast majority of colorectal cancers were derived from polypoid adenomas. However, several investigators have noted that most colorectal...

Surgical Management of Colorectal Metastases to the Liver

Colorectal carcinoma is the second commonest cancer in both males and females in Singapore, accounting for about 15% of all cancer cases. The liver...

Recent Advances in the Total Management of Colorectal Cancer

Considerable improvements in the survival and outcome of colorectal carcinoma have been made in recent years. These have been the result of advances in...

Unusual Case of Bowel Infarction with Invasive Aspergillus in an Immunocompromised Patient

The role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer has been established and there has been a growing interest in its role in...

Adolescent Health Education Programmes: Theoretical Principles in Design and Delivery

Over the past three decades, the patterns of health need in youth have changed. Psychosocial problems such as depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, sexually...

Art and “the Language of Well-Being” in Adolescent Health Care

Creative processes involve imagining, making unexpected connections, maintaining discipline while letting go of controlling the outcome, opening oneself to pleasure, and moving beyond frustration....

From Recreation to Creative Expression: The Essential Features of an Adolescent Inpatient Psychosocial Support Programme

In 1984, the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne, Australia opened a new ward specifically for adolescent inpatients. This initiative was the result of...

Adolescent Admissions to a Tertiary Paediatric Hospital: A Dynamic Pattern

The nature of paediatric practice is changing worldwide. In developing countries, infant mortality from infectious diseases continues to fall with improved immunisation, medical care...

Clinical Assessment, Management and Outcomes of a Group of Adolescents Presenting with Complex Medico-psychosocial Conditions

Increased sensitivity to biological change can make adolescents particularly vulnerable to non-organic symptomatic disorders. A variety of pains, headaches, dizziness and fatigue may remain...

Adolescent Chronic Illness: A Qualitative Study of Psychosocial Adjustment

Chronic illness during adolescence can have significant psychological and social consequences within many life domains. Growing up with a chronic medical condition presents many...

Strategies to Promote Better Outcomes in Young People with Chronic Illnesses

The epidemiology of child health in the developed world is changing. Mortality from infectious diseases has fallen sharply over the past century due to...

Adolescent Alcohol and Other Substance Use: Sharing the Australian Experience

The most common causes of morbidity in adolescence often have behavioural or social determinants, and can have enormous social and economic consequences for adolescent...

Sexually Transmitted Infections in Singapore Teenagers

Adolescence can be a difficult period for many individuals who have to navigate their way through complicated emotional, psychological, physical and social demands and...

Eating Disorders in Singapore: A Review

Anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge-eating disorder are the three best described ‘eating disorders’. All three are predominantly disorders of women with the core symptoms...

Youth Suicide and Parasuicide in Singapore

The World Health Organization defines suicide as an act with a fatal outcome that is deliberately initiated and performed by the person himself or...

Five-Year Review of Adolescent Mental Health Usage in Singapore

The past 20 years have seen much growth in the knowledge of child and adolescent psychiatric practice. Research has provided an improved understanding in...

The Perils of Puberty

Adolescence is a biopsychosocial maturational process, with the biological changes including completion of linear growth and sexual maturation (puberty), maturation of enzyme systems such...

Adolescent Health—A New Perspective in Singapore

In the past five decades, there have been significant advances in the fields of Paediatrics and Adult Medicine in Singapore. However, the bridging field...

Patterns and predictors of sound levels in hospital rooms

Dear Editor,      Excessive sound levels in the hospital can impair the work performance of healthcare professionals and affect patient well-being.1 Previous studies have also...

MELAS: A Case Report

A 6-year-old Chinese boy presented at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery clinic with gingival bleeding due to poor oral hygiene, odontogenic pain due to...

Oropharyngeal Carriage and Penicillin Resistance of Neisseria meningitidis in Primary School Children in Manisa, Turkey

Infections by Neisseria meningitidis are significant causes of mortality and morbidity in young children and adolescents. The epidemiology of serious meningococcal disease is an...

Behcet’s Disease: Experience in a Tertiary Rheumatology Centre in Singapore and a Review of the Literature

The only published study on Behcet’s disease in Singapore by Tan E et al (34 patients at the National Skin Centre) found that only...

Contact Lens Microbial Keratitis and Prior Topical Steroid Use: A Disaster in the Making?

Topical steroid use in cornea ulcers is still a very contentious issue in ophthalmology. A recent review by Wilhelmus found that the use of...

The HercepTest and Routine C-erbB2 Immunohistochemistry in Breast Cancer: Any Difference?

The proto-oncogene c-erbB2 (also known as HER2/neu) is located on chromosome 17q21 and encodes a 185-kD transmembrane glycoprotein. It belongs to the human epidermal...

A Case of Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Hypopharynx Manifesting as Acute Abdomen

T, a 23-year-old female, was previously well until November 2000 when she presented with 1-year history of sore throat associated with neck lumps for...

A Case of Maffucci’s Syndrome With Pleural Effusion: Ten-year Follow-up

A 23-year-old male patient was admitted to Ataturk Chest Disease Hospital with non-productive cough, dyspnoea, chest pain and back pain. These complaints had begun...

Twin Births in Singapore: A Population-Based Study Using the National Birth Registry

Twin studies are regarded as one of the better ways to study the effects and significance of gene, environment and interactions of both. The...

Clinical Indications for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scanning

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide a broad framework for clinicians considering the use of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning for their...

Positron Emission Tomography – A Vital Component of Molecular Imaging

Contemporary medical imaging is progressing towards quantification of tissue function in addition to merely providing anatomical information, as illustrated by the rising use of...

A Fatal Turkish Case of Campomelic Dysplasia

Paediatric Medicine (CD) is a rare form of congenital short-limbed dwarfism, classically characterised by campomelia (bowing of the long bones of the lower extremities)...

Two Case Reports of Metastases from Colon Carcinoma to the Thyroid

Metastases to the thyroid are not as rare as previously believed and have been shown, in autopsy series, to be more common than primary...

Familial Risk of Allergic Rhinitis and Atopic Dermatitis among Chinese Families in Singapore

Family history has been shown to be a risk factor for the development of allergic rhinitis (AR) and atopic dermatitis (AD). However, the increase...

Trends in Cancer Incidence Among Singapore Malays: A Low-risk Population

Cancer is now one of the most common causes of death in the world. Inspection of changes in cancer incidence in ethnically or geographically...

Clinical Report: A Case of Williams Syndrome and Klinefelter Syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare but well recognised neurodevelopmental disease affecting the connective tissue and the central nervous system. The syndrome was first...

Skin Manifestation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Infection – A Case Report and Review Article

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an aerobic gram-negative bacillus that is found in aquatic environments. It is a frequent coloniser of fluids used in the hospital...

Gender Disparity in Paediatric Hospital Admissions

Gender difference in the incidence of childhood diseases has long been recognised. but the magnitude of this effect and consistency across many disease categories...

The Effectiveness of Transvaginal Anterior Colporrhaphy Reinforced with Polypropylene Mesh in the Treatment of Severe Cystoceles

Using the Baden-Walker halfway system, Grade 4 cystoceles are defined as extrusions of the bladder base beyond the vaginal introitus with patient straining maximally...

Image-guided Radiofrequency Ablation of Liver Malignancies: Experience at Singapore General Hospital

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation for the treatment of focal liver malignancies is a relatively new image-guided procedure that is gaining increasing acceptance in the radiologic...

Study of Inherited Metabolic Disorders in Singapore – 13 Years Experience

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) described in the early 1900s by Garrod were due to a block in a metabolic pathway, arising from an...

Does Visual Turbidity Correlate With Serum Triglyceride Levels in Babies on Total Parenteral Nutrition?

Intravenous lipid infusion is commonly used as part of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in newborn babies. Upon infusion, it forms an emulsion that resembles...

Corticosteroids are not Present in a Traditional Chinese Medicine Formulation for Atopic Dermatitis in Children

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease. It has been estimated that 15% of schoolchildren aged 13 to 14 years have...

Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Paediatric Oncology Patients in Singapore

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been gaining acceptance throughout the world. The efficacy of CAM is unproven, yet it remains popular with the...

Eye Injuries in Singapore – Don’t Risk It. Do More. A Prospective Study

The issue of ophthalmic trauma is a major cause for concern. An estimated 55 million eye injuries occur each year worldwide, leaving 1.6 million...

Detection and Quantification of the Abelson Tyrosine Kinase Domains of the bcr-abl Gene Translocation in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia Using Genomic Quantitative Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a clonal stem cell malignancy characterised by massive proliferation of mature and immature granulocytes, basophils and spleen cells, but...

The Epidemiology of Paediatric Intussusception in Singapore: 1997 to 2004

Intussusception (IS) is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in infants and young children. The peak age of presentation is 4 to 8...

The Feminist Approach in the Decision-making Process for Treatment of Women With Breast Cancer

The ethical theories employed in healthcare today generally assume a modern Western philosophical framework, which is applied to many issues such as abortion, euthanasia,...

A Report of Two Families with Sarcosinaemia in Hong Kong and Revisiting the Pathogenetic Potential of Hypersarcosinaemia

Sarcosinaemia (OMIN 268900) is an autosomal recessive condition due to the deficiency of sarcosine dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.5.99.1). It is a rare condition with an...

Community-associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Overview and Local Situation

The emergence and spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from the community that are distinct from their archetypal healthcare-associated counterparts (HA-MRSA) marked a...

Neonatal Priapism Associated With Spontaneous Bilateral Pyocavernositis

Priapism is a pathological state of prolonged, generally painful erection, unassociated with sexual desire and not ending in ejaculation. Rare before the 1980s, this...

Paediatrics to Geriatrics: The Continuum

In many parts of Asia today, paediatricians are still grappling with the childhood problems of infectious diseases, diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition. In Singapore, it...

Radiographic Features of SARS in Paediatric Patients: A Review of Cases in Singapore

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerged atypical pneumonia caused by the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). It is easily transmitted via droplet infection...

Modelling the Utility of Body Temperature Readings From Primary Care Consults for SARS Surveillance in an Army Medical Centre

There has been increasing interest in building surveillance systems capable of detecting outbreaks of infectious diseases, at the stage where clinical presentation would still...

Postirradiation Sarcoma of the Sphenoid Bone – A Case Report

Radiation-associated tumours of the temporal and maxillary bone have been reported in patients treated with radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. There was no previously reported...

A Rotavirus Vaccine for Infants: The Asian Experience

Of all the enteric pathogens that infect young children, rotavirus is recognised as the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis worldwide. Rotavirus accounts for 20%...

Phase II Trial of Gemcitabine and Cisplatin Sequentially Administered in Asian Patients With Unresectable or Metastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. It ranks first among males and third among females in the incidence of...

Therapeutic Hypothermia for Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischaemic Encephalopathy

Hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) is an important cause of death and later neurological disability in full-term neonates worldwide. Perinatal asphyxia causes about 19% of the...

Outcome of Organic Acidurias in China

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Organising Services for IMD in Thailand: Twenty Years Experience

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Newborn Screening in Pakistan – Lessons from a Hospital-based Congenital Hypothyroidism Screening Programme

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Newborn Screening in Bangladesh

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Newborn Screening in China: Phenylketonuria, Congenital Hypothyroidism and Expanded Screening

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Minimising Harm from Newborn Screening Programmes

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Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip: Universal or Selective Ultrasound Screening?

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Financing Newborn Screening Systems: US Experience

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Inborn Errors of Metabolism Presenting as Neonatal Encephalopathy: Practical Tips for Clinicians

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Legal Issues in Neonatal Screening

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Neuroblastoma Screening in Japan: Population-based Cohort Study and Future Aspects of Screening

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External Quality Assurance Programme for Newborn Screening of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency

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Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency: Correlation between the Genotype, Biochemistry and Phenotype

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Disorders of Vitamin B12 Metabolism Presenting Through Newborn Screening

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Diagnosis of Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) Responsive Mild Phenylketonuria in Japan over the Past 10 Years

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Fatty Acid Oxidation Defects

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Disorders of the Carnitine Cycle and Detection by Newborn Screening

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Spectrum of Inherited Metabolic Disorders in Malaysia

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Establishing a Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programme

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Current Understanding of Auditory Neuropathy

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A Multidisciplinary Approach to Paediatric Hearing Loss: Programme at the Centre for Hearing Intervention and Language Development, National University Hospital, Singapore

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Early Intervention For Hearing Impairment: Appropriate, Accessible and Affordable

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Impact of the National Hearing Screening Programme in China

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Outcome of Early Cochlear Implantation

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Eliminating Iodine Deficiency: Obstacles and Their Removal

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Neuro-developmental Deficits in Early-treated Congenital Hypothyroidism

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Issues on Universal Screening for Galactosemia

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Newborn Screening for all Identifiable Disorders with Tandem Mass Spectrometry is Cost Effective: The Negative Case

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Newborn Screening for all Identifiable Disorders with Tandem Mass Spectrometry is Cost Effective: Supporting Arguments

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My Early Experiences in Establishing Neonatal Screening and the Reason for Regional Meetings of the International Society for Neonatal Screening

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Diagnosis and Management Support for an Expanded Newborn Screening Programme

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Considerations in Choosing Screening Conditions: One (US) Approach

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Clinical Applications of Molecular Genetics: The Model of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

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Newborn Screening in Japan: Restructuring for the New Era

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Improved Health and Development of Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Following Early Intervention

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Towards Universal Newborn Screening in Developing Countries: Obstacles and the Way Forward

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Improving Child Health – Newborn Screening for All?

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Neonatal Screening – A Global Perspective

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Putting Together Lesions in the Brain, Retina, Kidney and Pancreas

A 40-year-old Malay lady presented with a 6-month history of headache. She had a past history of a left nephrectomy 6 years ago. This article...

Prevalence of Refractive Error in Malay Primary School Children in Suburban Area of Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

Refractive error remains one of the primary causes of visual impairment in children worldwide. Prevalence of visual impairment in children, is defined as uncorrected...

A Review of Clinical Pathway Data of 1663 Total Knee Arthroplasties in a Tertiary Institution in Singapore

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been established as an effective treatment modality for patients with symptomatic knee arthritis. It provides predictable decrement in pain,...

Assessment of Medical Graduates Competencies

Medical professional proficiency comprises a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to efficiently accomplish the practice of medicine. The major aim of undergraduate...

Tuberculosis Masquerading as Recurrent Metastatic Carcinoma of the Cervix

The incidences of certain malignancies are increasing and are major causes of mortality. Diagnosis can be difficult and delayed. This article is available only as...

When Words Really Matter

I think a lot these days about doctors giving advice. Nobody taught me, back in medical school, how to give advice. This article is available...

Association of Epstein-Barr Virus with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Current Status of Development of Cancer-derived Cell Lines

Although nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has been reported in almost all parts of the world, most cases of NPC are found in South East Asia,...

Diabetic Retinopathy in Diabetics Referred to a Tertiary Centre from a Nationwide Screening Programme

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss in Asia. Singapore has one of the highest prevalence rates of diabetes mellitus (DM)...

Behavioural Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Overall, children spend one-third to one-half of their life sleeping. Although sleep comprises such a significant portion of a child’s day, sleep disturbances are...

Cardiovascular Changes in Children with Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a spectrum of diseases ranging from primary snoring to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). A recent review suggested that the...

Obesity and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome in Singapore Children

Obesity is becoming a problem of epidemic proportions and is perhaps, the most pervasive medical problem faced by medical providers today. It is a...

Sleep Disorders in Children: The Singapore Perspective

Sleep problems are common in children. For example, snoring occurs in more than 25% of Singapore children1 and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) occurs in...

Diagnosis and Evaluation of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in Children

Children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) may present with nocturnal and/or diurnal symptoms. The history is best obtained from parents, or siblings who share...

The Scope of Paediatric Sleep Medicine

Despite apparent similarities to adult sleep medicine, the disorders of paediatric sleep medicine have a distinct epidemiology and pathophysiology. During childhood, the physiology of...

Sleep Disturbances in Singaporean Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood psychiatric disorder with various studies reporting prevalence rates of between 1.7% and 16%. The most...

Inflammatory Cytokines and Childhood Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is characterised by repeated episodes of upper airway occlusion during sleep that are associated with daytime behavioural changes and abnormalities...

Nasal Obstruction in Children with Sleep-disordered Breathing

Nasal breathing is critical in infants and children; for example, neonatal choanal atresia often leads to respiratory distress and may require urgent intervention in...

Massive Retroperitoneal Adrenal Haemorrhage as the First Manifestation of a Lung Cancer

A 74-year-old man was admitted with sudden onset of right upper quadrant abdominal pain radiating towards right shoulder and right thigh. Pain was aggravated...

4th FY Khoo Memorial Lecture 2008: Nasopharyngeal Cancer Workgroup – The Past, The Present and The Future

Thank you Madam Chairman. First, I would like to thank the Singapore Radiological Society and the College of Radiologists, Academy of Medicine Singapore for...

Phase II Trial of Gemcitabine in Combination with Cisplatin in Inoperable or Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high incidence rate in Asia. In Singapore, it is the third most common cancer amongst males, and constituted 8%...

Immunogenicity, Reactogenicity and Safety of a Diphtheria-Tetanus-Acellular Pertussis-Inactivated Polio and Haemophilus Influenzae Type b Combination Vaccine in a Placebo-controlled Rotavirus Vaccine Study

Singapore’s national immunisation programme for the 6 traditional Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) vaccines (i.e. BCG, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and measles) and hepatitis...

Transfusion-dependent Microcytic Anaemia in a 10-year-old Girl

A 10-year-girl from Bangladesh presented with a moderately severe anaemia (lowest recorded haemoglobin level of 5.6 g/dL) and a mild jaundice (latest serum bilirubin,...

Caudal Regression Syndrome

A white female with an uncomplicated history of birth delivery and a familial history of diabetes mellitus presented to the orthopaedic clinic at the...

Pancreas-only Metastasis from Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

A 51-year-old Chinese man presented with a 3 month’s history of left cervical lymphadenopathy, rhinorrhoea, tinnitus and nasal congestion. On nasopharyngoscopy, a fungating mass...

3rd College of Paediatrics and Child Health Lecture – The Past, the Present and the Shape of Things to Come…

In the post-war days of the 1950s, Singapore children were faced with problems of malnutrition and infectious diseases. There was poverty, overcrowded housing and...

Auricular Anthropometry of Newborns at the Singapore General Hospital

Abnormalities of the external ear are described in many syndromes and genetic conditions. Melnick et al reported an incidence of 1 in 90 births...

Induction Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy Using Paclitaxel and Carboplatin Combination Followed by Surgery in Locoregionally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer – Asian Experience

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Singapore. The age standardised incidence rate is 45 per 100,000/year. This article is available only...

Successful Surgical Treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma With Calvarial Metastases

Renal cell cancer (RCC) accounts for 3% of all cancers. Isolated haematuria or pain is the most common form of presentation. This article is available...

Treatment of Cardiogenic Pulmonary Oedema by Helmet-delivered Non-invasive Pressure Support Ventilation in Children With Scorpion Sting Envenomation

Scorpion stings represent an important and serious public health problem worldwide due to their high incidence and potentially severe and often fatal clinical manifestations,...

The Toxicity and Outcomes of Continuous 5-fluorouracil/Cisplatin-based Chemotherapy Followed by Chemoradiation in Patients with Resected High-risk Gastric Cancer: Results of a Single Institute

Gastric carcinoma is the second most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Surgery is the only curative therapy, although 5-year survival rates remain poor...

Screening Tools for Bacteraemia in a Selected Population of Febrile Children

Bacteraemia refers to the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream. The presence or absence of toxicity differentiates occult bacteraemia, which is relatively asymptomatic, from...

Review of the Management Outcome of Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis and the Role of Prophylactic Contra-lateral Pinning Re-examined

Slipped capital femoral epiphysis is the commonest hip problem in the adolescent age group. The goals of treatment are aimed at avoiding the complications...

Local Experience of Endorectal Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Prostate with Correlation to Radical Prostatectomy Specimens

Prostate cancer ranks among the top 10 cancers in Singapore. The incidence of prostate cancer has risen by 5% to 118% in most Asian...

MMP-2, TIMP-2 and CD44v6 Expression in Non-small-cell Lung Carcinomas

Studies have provided data that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) facilitate tumour invasion, the establishment of metastases. On the other hand, matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors have been...

Use of Antibiotics in a Haematology Ward – An Audit

Rising rates of antibiotic resistance prompted a review of antibiotic use policies hospitalwide. The Department of Haematology established a new set of consensus guidelines...

The Role of Surgery in High-grade Glioma – Is Surgical Resection Justified? A Review of the Current Knowledge

High-grade glioma (malignant glioma) is the most common primary intra-axial tumour of the central nervous system (CNS). Despite recent therapeutic advances in glioma treatment,...

Improvements in Quality of Care Resulting From a Formal Multidisciplinary Tumour Clinic in the Management of High-grade Glioma

Multidisciplinary care has now been established as the optimal management principle for the majority of malignancies.1,2 However, the model of multidisciplinary care, specifically the...

Paediatric perineal skin pit: More than skin deep?

A 2.5-year-old boy was referred to our clinic for abnormal genitalia and a febrile urinary tract infection (Escherichia coli >105 colony-forming units/mL). At birth,...

Survival of Small-cell Lung Cancer and its Determinants of Outcome in Singapore

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality around the world.1 Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) constitutes about 15% to 25% of all lung...

Noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features and the risk of malignancy in thyroid cytology: Data from Singapore

As only 5–10% of thyroid nodules harbour malignancy, fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is important in triaging nodules requiring surgical excision from nodules that may be...

Characteristics of unplanned hospitalisations among cancer patients in Singapore

Cancer is a pervasive global problem with growing healthcare utilisation and costs.1-3 This situation is similar in Singapore where cancer incidence is on the...

The case for better hospitalisation selection in cancer patients

Public hospital occupancy rates and resource utilisation in Singapore are perennially high. In the last 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been...

Lack of Awareness amongst Community Patients with Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy: The Singapore Malay Eye Study

Diabetes is a major public health problem, and diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-aged people.1 Previous studies have documented poor...

Pain Prevalence in Singapore

Population studies on pain prevalence are useful in determining the impact that chronic pain has on the society. It draws the attention of healthcare...

Retinoblastoma: A Recent Experience at the National University Hospital, Singapore

Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in infants and children.1 Worldwide, the incidence is 1 in 18,000 to 34,000 live births with...

An Update of Paediatric Intussusception Incidence in Singapore: 1997-2007, 11 Years of Intussusception Surveillance

This is an update to the previously published paper by Boudville et al1 on 8 years of intussusception (IS) surveillance in Singapore. IS is...

Recurrent Group B Streptococcal Septicemia in a Very Low Birth Weight Infant with Infective Endocarditis and Submandibular Cellulitis

Maternal Group B streptococcal colonisation can lead to neonatal pneumonia, meningitis or sepsis. Neonatal Group B Streptococcal (GBS) sepsis is common, but infective endocarditis...

Outcomes of Oral Tongue Cancer: Does Age Matter?

Oral cancer (including oral cavity and oropharynx) is the eighth most common cancer worldwide with oral cavity cancer among the 3 most common malignancies...

Morbidity of Parainfluenza 3 Outbreak in Preterm Infants in a Neonatal Unit

Parainfluenza type 3 virus (PIV-3) is an important nosocomial pathogen. It closely mimics respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in its clinical presentations, and in infants....

Venous Thromboembolism at the National Healthcare Group, Singapore

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a potentially fatal disease which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). About 30% of patients with VTE...

An Unexpected Outcome following Radial Head Excision for Jeffrey Type II Fracture-Dislocation of the Proximal Radius in a Child

We present a case of a 10-year-old child who sustained a traumatic fracture-dislocation of his proximal radius and subsequently underwent surgical removal of the...

Temporary Tattoo Associated Type IV Delayed Hypersensitivity Dermatitis in a Child – A Case Report and Call for Parental Caution in Singapore

A 5-year-old, previously healthy French Caucasian boy was seen at a Paediatric Emergency Department for a skin rash over his left forearm. This article is...

A Case of Congenital Haemolytic Anaemia and Thrombocytopenia

A 20-month-old boy came from Bangladesh to Singapore for medical consultation. He presented with progressive pallor, easy bruising, intermittent dark-coloured urine, and failure to...

An Exanthem with An Annular Pattern in a 2-year-old Girl

A 2-year-old Chinese girl was seen in clinic with an erythematous annular itchy rash which began on the thighs and had spread to the...

Clinical Features Differentiating Biliary Atresia from Other Causes of Neonatal Cholestasis

Causes of neonatal cholestasis (NC) are long and diverse but the responses of newborn liver, either physiological or anatomical, are limited. This is because...

Surgical Metastasectomy in AJCC Stage IV M1c Melanoma Patients with Gastrointestinal and Liver Metastases

The prognosis of patients with stage IV melanoma or recurrent melanoma is poor with an estimated median survival period of 6 months. The recent...

Comparison of Clinical Outcomes and Cost Between Surgical and Transcatheter Device Closure of Atrial Septal Defects in Singapore Children

Congenital heart defects (CHD), with an incidence of approximately 1 in 100 live births, are the most important and frequent congenital malformations. It can...

Coexistence of Unicentric Castleman’s Disease and Locally Advanced Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma: More Than a Coincidental Association?

Castleman’s disease (CD) is an enigmatic lymphoproliferative disorder due to its rarity, uncertain aetiopathogenesis and heterogeneous clinicopathologic forms. This case report presents an unusual...

Management of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura in Metastatic Prostate Cancer with only Endocrine Therapy

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a systemic disorder that presents acutely with multiple organ failure. Although defined classically as a syndrome with a pentad...

Bannayan Riley Ruvalcaba Syndrome

Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome (BRRS) classically presents with macrocephaly, subcutaneous and visceral lipomata, haemangiomata, hamartomatous intestinal polyps and pigmented macules involving the genitalia. This autosomal dominant...

Are New Resuscitation Guidelines Better? Experience of an Asian Metropolitan Hospital

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a substantial public health burden that has poor prognosis. Patients who receive “good” and “high-quality” cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have...

Phosph-Akt1 Expression is Associated with a Favourable Prognosis in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide with an estimated 34,290 deaths recorded in the United States in 2008....

An Eight Year Review of Exercise-related Cardiac Arrests

Exercise-related cardiac arrest is uncommon, however it is devastating when it occurs in otherwise healthy adults. In young adults, vigorous physical exercise trigger cardiac...

Evaluation on the Effectiveness of the National Childhood Immunisation Programme in Singapore, 1982-2007

Singapore has a comprehensive National Childhood Immunisation Programme (NCIP) which first covered smallpox (1862), followed by diphtheria (1938), tuberculosis (TB) (1957), poliomyelitis (1958), pertussis...

Dyke-Davidoff-Masson Syndrome

An 8-year-old boy presented with uncontrolled seizures. He was born as the second child to non-consanguineous parents. He had significant perinatal asphyxia in the...

The Need for a System of Prognostication in Skeletal Metastasis to Decide Best End-of-life Care – A Call to Arms

Decisions regarding potential surgery for metastatic disease are influenced by estimates of patient survival. For example, patients with long life expectancy may be appropriately...

Prospective Audit of Febrile Neutropenia Management at a Tertiary University Hospital in Singapore

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is considered a medical emergency and remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Oncology and Haematology units worldwide. A...

Childhood Food Allergy: A Singaporean Perspective

Food allergy is defined as reaction to a food which has an immunologic mechanism. If immunoglobulin E (IgE) is involved in the reaction, the...

Transcatheter Closure of Atrial Septal Defects – Is Balloon Sizing Still Necessary?

Device closure of atrial septal defects through the transcatheter approach has now been well accepted as an option to surgical treatment. A range of...

An Audit Study of the Sensitivity and Specificity of Ultrasound, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and Frozen Section in the Evaluation of Thyroid Malignancies in a Tertiary Institution

Thyroid lesions constitute a considerable bulk of surgical practice, majority of which are thyroid nodules. A large population study revealed that clinically apparent thyroid...

Survey of Healthcare Workers’ Attitudes, Beliefs and Willingness to Receive the 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccine and the Impact of Educational Campaigns

Since the first positive 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) case was reported in Singapore on 26 May 2009, the country saw an exponential rise...

Outbreak of Novel Influenza A (H1N1-2009) Linked to a Dance Club

Influenza A (H1N1-2009) is a novel strain of influenza virus. The infection is thought to have first occurred in Mexico in March 2009, and...

An Epidemiological Study of 1348 Cases of Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Admitted to Singapore Hospitals from July to September 2009

On 17 April 2009, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) determined that febrile respiratory illness occurring in 2 children residing in adjacent counties...

Outbreak of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1-2009) in Singapore, May to September 2009

The first cases of infection with a novel influenza A (H1N1) strain were reported in 6 cases in California and 2 cases in Texas...

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome by the Adult Treatment Panel III, International Diabetes Federation, and World Health Organization Definitions and their Association with Coronary Heart Disease in an Elderly Iranian Population

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in different communities.1,2 Despite the lack of accurate data,...

Reply from Author: Is It Time to Revise the Definition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

We would like to thank the author for suggesting that the definition of ADHD should be revised. This is an important consideration in the...

Is It Time to Revise the Definition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

I read with interest the article published in the Annals entitled “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Coping or Curing?”, which concluded that coping rather than...

Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Singapore Cancer Patients

Worldwide, the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by cancer patients is highly prevalent. For cancer specialists, knowledge on CAM use in their...

rTSβ as a Novel 5-fluorouracil Resistance Marker of Colorectal Cancer: A Preliminary Study

Although colorectal cancer is common in Western countries, in the past, it has been uncommon in Asian countries. However, its prevalence has gradually been...

Dedicated Cytogenetics Factor is Critical for Improving Karyotyping Results for Childhood Leukaemias – Experience in the National University Hospital, Singapore 1989-2006

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) make up the bulk of childhood leukaemia cases. With risk stratified therapy being one of...

Epidemiological Surveillance and Control of Rubella in Singapore, 1991-2007

Rubella is a mild febrile viral exanthematous disease transmitted through droplets or direct contact with the nasopharyngeal secretion of an infected person. It is...

Emerging Trends in Breastfeeding Practices in Singaporean Chinese Women: Findings from a Population-based Study

The health benefits of breast milk have been well documented, with positive implications for infants’ metabolic, immunologic, respiratory and digestive health. The World Health...

A Missed Bilateral Choanal Atresia

What do you see in the image? a) Deviated posterior nasal septum b) Nasopharyngeal tumour c) Rhinolith with mucous plug d) Bilateral choanal atresia e) Nasal pyriform aperture stenosis This...

Dilemmas in Management of Brain Tumours in Pregnancy

Brain tumours in pregnancy are rare with an incidence of 15 per 100,000 and previous reports have shown variable outcomes. We present a case...

Peritoneal-based Malignancies and Their Treatment

Peritonectomy or cytoreductive surgery has been described as the treatment of choice for selected patients with evidence of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from the gastrointestinal...

Immunophenotypic, Cytogenetic and Clinical Features of 113 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Patients in China

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a heterogeneous disease with abnormal proliferation and accumulation of immature lymphoblasts within the bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood and...

Health-related Quality of Life in Children with Cancer Undergoing Treatment: A First Look at the Singapore Experience

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been progressively acknowledged as an essential health outcome measure in clinical trials and health services research and evaluation....

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C as a Predictor of Early Recurrence and Poor Prognosis of Resected Stage I Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with a 5-year survival of around 15%. Approximately 20% of patients present...

Policy Implications of The Singapore Mental Health Study

Mental health issues have taken on greater importance with the growing awareness among policy makers of the importance of mental health for the development...

Neonatal and Paediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) in a Single Asian Tertiary Centre

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a cardiopulmonary bypass technique (CPB) introduced by Bartlett in 1972, which provides life-saving support in patients with refractory yet...

Managing buccal space tumours

Dear Editor, The buccal space is an infrequently addressed fascial space of the head and neck region. Intrinsic tumours of the buccal space are...

Acute Marjolin’s Ulcer: A Forgotten Entity

Marjolin’s ulcers are malignancies that arise from areas of chronic irritation or injury that undergo malignant transformation after a period of many years. Such...

Kidney Cancer and Diabetes Mellitus: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Taiwan

Kidney cancer accounts for 3% to 4% of all cancers. In a systematic review by Mathew and et al,2 the incidence of kidney cancer...

A 22-year-old Woman Had a Lung Mass

A 22-year-old woman had an abnormal chest X-ray (Fig. 1) in her regular health examination. She was asymptomatic and a non-smoker. Chest computed tomography...

Bilateral Polychromatic Crystalline Keratopathy as the Initial Manifestation of IgG-Lambda Multiple Myeloma

Dear Editor, Multiple myeloma is a subgroup of plasma cell dyscrasias with neoplastic proliferation of plasma cells or their precursors. Crystalline keratopathy is a well-recognised...

Singapore Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) Experience: Shall We Change Our Practice?

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) constitutes nearly 4% of all children diagnosed with cancer in the ethnically diverse small island city of Singapore. It is the most...

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Chinese Preschoolers in Singapore

The increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity and its associated adverse health outcomes have become an important health issue. Childhood obesity can persist...

Low-Grade Fibromyxoid Sarcoma of the Thyroid: A Case Report

Dear Editor, Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma (LGFMS) is a rare form of neoplasm that usually occurs in the deep soft tissue of the lower limbs with...

Short- and Long-Term Outcomes at 2, 5 and 8 Years Old for Neonates at Borderline Viability—An 11-Year Experience

Singapore was listed consistently among the top 3 countries in the world with the lowest infant mortality rate. In particular, Asia had seen its...

Neonatal Outcome of the Late Preterm Infant (34 to 36 Weeks): The Singapore Story

Neonatologists were caught looking the other way in the early part of the millennium. While they were keenly following the progress of extreme preterms...

Five Patients with Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Presenting as Asymptomatic Elevation of Carcinoembryonic Antigen Level

Early detection of malignancies is not easy. Few methods of health screening have been proven to be of value. The use of carcinoembryonic antigen...

Too Much Medicine: Time to Stop Indiscriminate Cancer Screening

Like most industrialised countries in the world, cancer has now become the leading cause of mortality in Singapore. Approximately 1 in 3 deaths in...

Risk Factors for Severe Adenovirus Infection in Children during an Outbreak in Singapore

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are well known pathogens that cause a variety of human illnesses. They are non-enveloped, linear double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) viruses. More...

Treatment of Ewing sarcoma in children: Results from a single centre

Dear Editor, Ewing sarcoma is a malignant mesenchymal tumour that presents as a bone or soft-tissue sarcoma. Translocations involving the EWS gene on chromosome 22q12...

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in Malaysian infants

Vitamin D deficiency, a worldwide health problem, is also prevalent in tropical countries. It is estimated that 15% of the world’s population are either...

Impact of true fetal mosaicism on prenatal screening and diagnosis

Over the past decade, the non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) has increasingly been used as a method for prenatal screening for trisomy 21 (T21) and...

Outcomes of oesophageal cancer treated with neoadjuvant compared with definitive chemoradiotherapy

Oesophageal cancer is the 7th most common cancer in the world, with 572,034 new cases diagnosed in 2018, and is the 6th most common...

Impact of unemployment on mental disorders, physical health and quality of life: Findings from the Singapore Mental Health Study

Several reviews and meta-analyses have established an association between unemployment and psychological distress. This relationship between unemployment and mental health is complex and likely...

Health-seeking behaviour of foreign workers in Singapore: Insights from emergency department visits

Singapore employs a large foreign worker (FW) population, defined as non-Singapore citizens and non-permanent residents working locally. Holders of “work permit” (WP), the work...

Accuracy of self-reported height, weight and BMI in a multiethnic Asian population

Overweight and obesity continue to be one of the most critical public health issues worldwide. Body mass index (BMI) derived from height and weight...

Incidence and trends of ophthalmic cancer in Singapore: Data from Singapore Cancer Registry

Ophthalmic cancers are commonly encountered in clinical practice and are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Globally, the incidence of ophthalmic cancers have...

Survival and Predictors of Mortality in Acute Kidney Injury Patients Treated with Sustained Low Efficiency Dialysis

Approximately one in ten patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) develops acute kidney injury (AKI), an important complication of ICU patients, and...

COVID-19 and Singapore: From Early Response to Circuit Breaker

The COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, where a cluster of pneumonia cases was reported and the novel coronavirus...

Comparative Analysis of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children

Singapore confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 23 January 2020 in a Chinese national from Wuhan, and its first paediatric case on February...

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): The Singapore Experience. A Review of the First Eight Months

Singapore reported its first imported case of COVID-19 on 23 January 20201 and its first COVID-19 deaths on 21 March 2020.2 The WHO declared...

Paediatric emergency department attendances during COVID-19 and SARS in Singapore

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, with over 110 million cumulative cases...

Epidemiology and risk stratification of minor head injuries in school-going children

Head injuries are common childhood injuries that present to paediatric emergency departments. Falls are the most common cause in young children, while contact sports...