Internal and emergency medicine
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Metabolic factors are major and controllable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and few studies have described this burden. We aim to assess it from 1990 to 2019 and predict the trends through 2034. Global Burden of Disease (GBD) provides data on sex, age, and socio-demographic index (SDI) levels. ⋯ Men, middle-aged and elderly people were focus of concern. High SBP was globally well-managed over the past 30 years, but the CVD burden due to high BMI and FPG remained high. Exceptional initiatives are needed to regarding interventions targeting high BMI and FPG in middle and lower SDI regions.
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EDs restricted visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic on the assumption that the risks of disease spread outweighed the psychological benefits of liberal visitation. But data suggest that beyond providing emotional support, family and caregivers can clarify history, improve patient monitoring, and advocate for patients-actions that can improve quality of care. Our objective was to assess whether removing visitors from the bedside contributed to errors in emergency care. ⋯ There were no statistically significant differences in the categories of error between the two groups; monitoring errors came the closest: 1/17 (5.9%) pre-COVID errors amenable to visitor intervention in these categories were monitoring related, whereas 7/25 (28.0%) post-COVID errors were (p = 0.16). While this study did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference in error between lenient and restrictive visitation eras, we did find multiple cases in the pre-COVID era in which family presence prevented error, and qualitative review of post-COVID errors suggested many could have been prevented by family presence. Larger trials are needed to determine how frequent and consequential such errors are and how to balance the public health imperative of curbing disease spread with the harm caused by restricting visitation.
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Letter
Gut microbiota, intestinal permeability, and systemic inflammation: a narrative review. Comment.
In this letter to the Editor, the author reports his comment on the review article entitled "Gut microbiota, intestinal permeability, and systemic inflammation: a narrative review", published in this Journal.