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Poor survival rate of pregnancy-associated breast cancer in Asian countries

Dear Editor, Asia has a lower incidence of breast cancer than North America, Oceania, and Western Europe. However, breast cancer rates have been rising fast...

Barriers to breast cancer screening in Singapore: A literature review

Breast cancer is a major public health concern and a leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide, including Singapore.1 According to the 2018...

Response to letters arising from publication of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore clinical guideline on the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy in the hospital setting

Dear Editor, The Academy of Medicine, Singapore (AMS) guideline on the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy in the hospital setting and an...

Sedation in gastrointestinal endoscopy in Singapore

Dear Editor, I refer to the editorial “Ensuring safe sedation during gastroendoscopy”1 and the original article “Academy of Medicine, Singapore clinical guideline on the use...

Non-anaesthesiologists administering propofol in the Singapore context

Dear Editor, Propofol is a potent intravenous sedative-hypnotic agent. Its popularity for sedation has increased in the last 3 decades because of its smooth, rapid...

Sedation by non-anaesthesiologists in gastrointestinal endoscopy

Dear Editor, We read with interest the paper by Ang et al.1 on Singapore guidelines in the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy...

Treating patients at home: A novel solution for old problems

Hospital-at-home (HaH) programmes deliver hospital-type treatments to patients located in their own homes, often in substitution for an acute inpatient admission or to support...

Epidemiological trends and outcomes of children with aural foreign bodies in Singapore

Aural foreign bodies (FBs) commonly present to the emergency department (ED) worldwide. Children represent the majority of the population, believed to be due to...

Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress and coronavirus anxiety among hospital essential services workers in Singapore

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected almost all geographies in the world since 2020. Many countries have imposed strict isolation measures to contain...

A Randomized Trial of the Use of Print Material and Personal Contact to Improve Mammography Uptake Among Screening Non-attenders in Singapore

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females in Singapore. Although lower than incidence rates in North America and the United Kingdom the...

Survival after Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the General Wards—The Results of a Dedicated “Code” Team

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is widely practised for cardiopulmonary arrests with variable success. The initial intention was to defibrillate patients with ventricular fibrillation after acute...

Population-based Mammographic Screening in Singapore: What are Participants’ Views?

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Singapore and has been increasing in incidence since 1968. This rise is particularly marked...

Clinical Predictors of Nephritis in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Lupus nephritis is a common manifestation of lupus associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The use of cytotoxic agents has resulted in improved renal...

Disseminated Penicillium marneffei Infection: A Report of Five Cases in Singapore

Penicillium marneffei is a dimorphic fungus that can cause infection in immunocompromised hosts. Reports on infection with this organism were initially uncommon, but after...

Clinical Drug Trials: Practical Problems of Phase III

There has been a rapid increase in clinical trial activity in Singapore and other parts of Asia. Randomised clinical trials are the “gold standard”...

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...

Deep Vein Thrombosis after Total Knee Replacement

Western literature reports a very high incidence of deep vein thrombosis in its population especially after orthopaedic surgery. In total knee replacement without prophylaxis,...

Introduction of Problem-based Learning in a Traditional Medical Curriculum in Singapore—Students’ and Tutors’ Perspectives

The National University of Singapore was started in 1905. Since then, it has trained many generations of medical practitioners. This article is available only as...

A Retrospective Study of Melanocytic Naevi at the National Skin Centre

Melanocytic naevi are benign proliferation of melanocytes of congenital and acquired types which usually appear during adolescence or early adult life. Naevi are of...

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...

Measuring Health-related Quality of Life in Singapore: Normal Values for the English and Chinese SF-36 Health Survey

Advances in diagnosis and therapy in the second half of the 20th century have lead to impressive improvements in survival for patients with many...

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...

Validity and Reliability of the EQ-5D Self-report Questionnaire in Chinese-speaking Patients with Rheumatic Diseases in Singapore

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) refers to patients’ perceptions of their own functioning and well-being. HRQoL is increasingly being used as a primary or...

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...

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) — 150 Days On

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has been identified as a new clinical entity in the year 2003. It was on 12 March 2003...

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...

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...

Epidemiology of Betel Quid Usage

Betel quid/areca nut use has been common in South and Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific region for a long time and is common...

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...

Characteristics and Acute Rehabilitation of Guillain-Barré Syndrome in Singapore

The Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute, frequently severe evolution of a demyelinating inflammatory polyradiculopathy with an autoimmune pathogenesis. In developed countries, GBS is...

Clinical PET Imaging – An Asian Perspective

Positron emission tomography (PET) is distinct from other imaging modalities in its ability to probe the physiology and biochemistry of normal and abnormal tissues....

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...

Early Dengue Infection and Outcome Study (EDEN) – Study Design and Preliminary Findings

Dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever (DF/DHF) is a re-emerging disease that is endemic in the tropical world. It is caused by 4 closely-related dengue viruses...

SARS in Singapore – Predictors of Disease Severity

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently defined illness caused by a novel coronavirus. The outbreak in Singapore originated from Hong Kong via...

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%...

The Clinical Predictors of Hypertension and Sleepiness in an Asian Population with Sleep-disordered Breathing

Sleep physicians have only recently began to learn much about the epidemiology of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) from large, well conducted prospective community-based studies. These...

The Future of Medical Education: The Second 100 Years

This is a proud year for the medical profession in Singapore, as we celebrate 100 years of medical education. As the oldest faculty in...

The Medical Students’ Societies and Medical Students’ Publications

For a very long time, King Edward VII (endearingly abbreviated “KE”) was synonymous with the medical school and its associated hall of residence. The...

The Teaching of Radiology

A record of Diagnostic Radiology would be incomplete without reference to Wilheim Roentgen, who discovered the rays that he could not comprehend; hence, X-rays....

In vitro Activities of Antifungal Drugs Against Yeasts Isolated from Blood Cultures and Moulds Isolated from Various Clinically Significant Sites in Singapore

Fungaemia carries with it high mortality rates and appropriate as well as timely antifungal therapy has been shown to be life saving. Amphotericin B...

Antimicrobial Resistance: A New Beginning and the Need for Action

In this issue, the articles (historical, original and review papers) highlight the extent and problem of antimicrobial resistance in Singapore. The authors should be...

The Media and Suicide

Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in 1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former...

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)...

A Doctor’s Duty is to Heal the Unhealthy: The Story of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Mahathir Mohamad was born in 1925 in Alor Setar, Kedah. In 1947, after living through the turbulent times of the Second World War, he...

Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy followed by Surgery in Locally Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oesophagus: A Single Centre Experience

Carcinoma of the oesophagus is a relatively uncommon malignancy in Singapore and incidence rates have been declining since 1968. A total of 506 cases...

Acceptance of Prophylactic Surgery and Chemoprevention of Cancer in Singapore – A Survey

The Singapore healthcare philosophy aims to establish a healthy population through preventive healthcare programmes and public health education. Public education usually emphasises the adverse...

Role of Urinary Screening Programmes in Children in the Prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease

Singapore has an estimated annual incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) of 158 per million population.1 However, the number of children who develop renal...

Concerns, Perceived Impact and Preparedness in an Avian Influenza Pandemic – a Comparative Study between Healthcare Workers in Primary and Tertiary Care

The danger posed by emerging infectious diseases has become greater in the past few years with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning that the...

Sociodemographic Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Public Health Education – A Comparison of Two Studies in Singapore

Public health education is a cornerstone in the primary prevention of chronic diseases. In the United States, for example, studies have shown that cardiovascular...

Concomitant Use of Midazolam and Buprenorphine and its Implications Among Drug Users in Singapore

Benzodiazepines (BDZs) (commonly known as “sleeping pills”) are routinely and successfully used in the treatment of sleep and anxiety disorders. However, studies have indicated...

A Brief History of Pathology and the Chapter of Pathologists

A history of the Chapter of Pathologists would be incomplete without a history of the specialty of Pathology in Singapore. Pathology is in fact...

From the Chapter of Physicians, Academy of Medicine, Singapore to the College of Physicians, Singapore

The transformation of the previous Chapter of Physicians, Academy of Medicine, Singapore to the current College of Physicians, Singapore in 2004 was the outcome...

From the Chapter of Anaesthetists to the College of Anaesthesiologists, Singapore

The arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 herald the birth of western medicine in Singapore. Doctors were then sent here from Britain. These...

Academy of Medicine, Singapore – The Next Twenty-Five Years (1982-2007)

The Academy of Medicine was founded in 1957 as the professional corporate body of medical and dental specialists in Singapore. From a modest beginning...

Epidemiology, Management and Treatment Outcome of Medulloblastoma in Singapore

Medulloblastoma (MBL) is the most common type of malignant brain tumour in childhood. It belongs to the group of tumours known as primitive neuroectodermal...

Timing of Hospital Presentation After Acute Cerebral Infarction and Patients’ Acceptance of Intravenous Thrombolysi

Intravenous thrombolysis in acute cerebral infarction has been proven to be efficacious in improving functional outcome if given within 3 hours from stroke onset.1...

Demographic and Clinical Features of 150 Pathological Gamblers Referred to a Community Addictions Programme

Pathological gambling has been defined as a persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behaviour that disrupts personal, family and work life. The diagnosis is not...

Successful Rehabilitation With Cochlear Implant in Post-irradiation Induced Hearing Loss in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patient

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common disease in Asia.1 Radiotherapy is the mainstay of treatment. Following radiotherapy, complications like profound sensorineural hearing loss may...

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...

A Prospective Cohort Study on the Impact of a Modified Basic Military Training (mBMT) Programme Based on Pre-enlistment Fitness Stratification Amongst Asian Military Enlistees

Basic military training (BMT) is seen as a vital initiation phase into military service when new recruits are conditioned to the rigours of military...

Where the Elderly Die: The Influence of Socio-Demographic Factors and Cause of Death on People Dying at Home

The subject of place of death was brought to the forefront of the medical community in July 2004 when 2 important publications were released;...

Trends in Importation of Communicable Diseases into Singapore

Singapore is a city-state in Southeast Asia, with a total population in 2007 of 4,839,400, of which 3,642,700 (75.3%) are Singaporean residents. The remaining...

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) Patterns in Bariatric Surgical Practice and Response of OSA to Weight Loss after Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB)

The incidence of OSA in severely obese Asians is poorly documented. This is also compounded by a varied racial profile across Asia. Singapore, with...

Acceptance of Information and Communication Technologies for Healthcare Delivery: A SingHealth Polyclinics Study

Information and communication technologies, such as internet portal and short message system (SMS), are increasingly used in healthcare delivery worldwide.1,2 Typically, these technologies are...

Liver Transplantation in Asia: Past, Present and Future

Liver transplantation is the best treatment modality for patients with end-stage liver diseases. It has been landmarked as one of the most important advances...

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...

Timing of Arrival to a Tertiary Hospital after Acute Ischaemic Stroke – A Follow-up Survey 5 Years Later

Intravenous tPA is a proven treatment for acute ischaemic stroke. However as it has to be given in a narrow time window from symptom...

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...

Diagnostic Accuracy of Anthropometric Indices for Obesity Screening Among Asian Adolescents

Obesity or excess body fat is strongly associated with enhanced risks of morbidity and mortality, and its prevalence is rapidly escalating worldwide. Despite these...

Health-related Quality of Life is Associated with Diabetic Complications, but not with Short-term Diabetic Control in Primary Care

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major chronic disease globally. With increasing life expectancy, long-term complications of diabetes mellitus leading to significant morbidity and...

Quality of Life in Pathological Gamblers in a Multiethnic Asian Setting

Pathological gambling is categorized under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV-TR) as an impulse control disorder not elsewhere classified....

Asian Adaptation and Validation of an English Version of the Multiple Sclerosis International Quality of Life Questionnaire (MusiQoL)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common disorders of the central nervous system with a lifetime risk of 1 in 400. In...

Causes of Death in Hospitalised Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected Patients at a National Referral Centre in Singapore: A Retrospective Review from 2008 to 2010

The advent of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era has greatly reduced the mortality and incidence of new diagnoses of acquired immune deficiency...

Causes of Death and Factors Associated with Early Death Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-Infected Persons in Singapore: Pre-Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and Peri-HAART

Since the first case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was diagnosed in Singapore in May 1985, a total of 4845 cases and 1389 HIV/acquired...

Melanoma: Differences between Asian and Caucasian Patients

Cutaneous melanoma is the most common cause of mortality amongst skin cancer in Caucasian populations and incidence rates per 100,000 patient years vary between...

Association of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Social Support with Depressive Symptoms among the Elderly in Singapore

Depression in the elderly is a major public health issue. Associated morbidities such as higher risk of impairment in physical, mental and social functioning...

Hoarding in an Asian Population: Prevalence, Correlates, Disability and Quality of Life

Hoarding is defined as the acquisition of, and inability to discard items even though they appear to others to have no value, leading to...

Clinical Outcome and Cost Comparison Between Laparoscopic and Open Appendicectomy

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal pain requiring surgical intervention. The traditional operation of choice was the open...

Osteogenic Sarcoma in Children and Young Adults

Osteogenic sarcoma (OS) is a primary malignant tumour of the bone, derived from primitive bone-forming mesenchyme and characterised by the production of osteoid tissue...

Single Centre Experience of Transjugular Liver Biopsy in 152 Patients

The first reported case of liver biopsy was recorded in 1883 by Ehrlich. Since then, the technique of liver biopsy has been modified tremendously...

Projecting the Number of Older Singaporeans with Activity of Daily Living Limitations Requiring Human Assistance Through 2030

Similar to other developed countries in Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the population of Singapore is ageing rapidly. In 2011, 9.3% of...

Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Community Dwelling Elderly

Singapore is experiencing an unprecedented age shift as the post-war baby boomers turn 65 years in 2012. Currently there are 378,700 people aged 65...

A Review of Back Injury Cases Notified to the Ministry of Manpower from 2011 to 2012

Work-related low back disorders consist of both low back pain (LBP) and low back injuries. They are a significant and increasing problem all over...

Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM∙EI): Transforming the Educational Culture of Health Professionals

In 2010, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) and Singapore Healthcare Services (SingHealth) launched an initiative to improve the lives of patients by combining their...

Evolution and trends in the adoption of laparoscopic liver resection in Singapore: Analysis of 300 cases

Over the past few decades, the introduction of laparoscopic surgery has been the biggest game changer in abdominal surgery.1 However, although the first laparoscopic...

Assessing the Content Validity of the EQ-5D Questionnaire Among Asians in Singapore: A Qualitative Study

EQ-5D is a tool to measure and value health status. It is a standardised questionnaire that comprises 2 components: a Descriptive System (DS) on...

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in Singapore: Reflecting on the First Decade

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has markedly changed the way aortic valve stenosis is treated. It is 18 years since the first patient was...

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...