Safety and efficacy of outpatient follow-up for referred patients with undiagnosed fever: A retrospective cohort study.

Fever is one of the most common symptoms seen in patients. The work-up and follow-up of fever in an outpatient-only setting is a reasonable option for stable patients referred for unexplained fever; however, the safety and efficacy of outpatient follow-up for those patients remain unclear. We conducted this study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of outpatient follow-up for referred patients with unexplained fever.This study was a retrospective cohort study. We included patients referred to the outpatient department of the diagnostic medicine of our university hospital for unexplained fever between October 2016 and September 2017. Exclusion criteria were recurrent fever or admission for fever evaluation prior to referral. Main outcomes of interest were the rate of admission without diagnosis, rate of remission of fever, and the total duration of fever in undiagnosed patients.Among 84 patients included in this study, 17 (20%) were diagnosed during outpatient follow-up, 6 (7%) were admitted due to worsened condition, 5 (6%) were lost to follow-up, and 56 (67%) were followed up as outpatients without a diagnosis. Among the 56 undiagnosed patients, fever resolved in 53 during outpatient follow-up with or without treatment (95%). The total duration of resolved fever in undiagnosed patients was within 8 weeks.Follow-up of patients referred for unexplained fever in an outpatient setting is safe and effective.

Dizziness in peri- and postmenopausal women is associated with anxiety: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Although dizziness is one of the most common symptoms of menopause, the underlying mechanism is not precisely known. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of, and the factors associated with, dizziness in peri- and postmenopausal women. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in which we analyzed the first-visit records of 471 Japanese women aged 40 to 65 years who enrolled in a health and nutrition education program at a menopause clinic. The prevalence of dizziness was estimated according to the participants' responses to the Menopausal Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire. The background characteristics of age, menopause status, body composition, cardiovascular parameters, basal metabolism, and physical fitness; other menopausal symptoms, including vasomotor, insomnia, depression, and anxiety symptoms; and lifestyle characteristics were assessed for their associations with dizziness. RESULTS: The percentage of women who suffered from dizziness once a week or more frequently was 35.7%. Compared to the women without dizziness, those with the symptom were younger; had a higher body weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, muscle mass, and waist-to-hip ratio; had higher systolic pressure; were slower in reaction time; had higher physical and psychological symptom scores of menopause; exercised less regularly; and consumed less alcohol. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the anxiety symptom, which was evaluated by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, was the sole factor that was independently associated with dizziness (adjusted odds ratio 1.14; 95% confidence interval 1.08-1.20). CONCLUSIONS: Dizziness is highly prevalent in Japanese peri- and postmenopausal women and it is associated with anxiety. The treatment of anxiety in this population might improve the symptom.

Effective π-extension of carbazole-based thiaporphyrins by peripheral phenylethynyl substituents.

Several tetrakis(phenylethynyl)- and (phenylethynylphenylethynyl)-substituted carbazole-based thiaporphyrins were synthesized. These π-extended porphyrins display remarkably intensified and red-shifted absorption bands in the NIR region up to 1126 nm due to perturbation by the phenylethynyl substituents.