Medicina
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CONICET's Translational Health Research Network is coordinating efforts to advance in translational medicine. Health researchers initiate and focus their research with the aim of improving the health and quality of life of the population. An efficient research system should address health problems relevant to the population resulting in interventions and outcomes important for patients and health professionals. ⋯ The recent COVID-19 pandemic has been a clear demonstration of how the country's research system has united the most diverse disciplines to jointly provide solutions to address it. An active and transparent mechanism to identify priorities in the country and to unite funding and research efforts to provide solutions to those priorities is proposed. Translational health research means the joint work of the most diverse health research disciplines in order to jointly obtain efficient and effective interventions to improve the health and quality of life of the population.
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Comparative Study
Molecular analysis of the CYP21A2 gene in dried blood spot samples.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is an autosomal recessive disorder due to a deficiency of enzymes involved in cortisol biosynthesis. In more than 90% of cases, CAH is secondary to deleterious mutations in the CYP21A2 gene leading to 21-hydroxilase deficiency (21OHD). The CYP21A2 gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 6 (6p21·3) and encodes the cytochrome P450C21 enzyme. ⋯ The CYP21A2 gene was analyzed by automated sequencing of all exons and intron boundaries and MLPA analysis in DBS. Molecular analysis results from both extraction methods were compared. In this study, we show that DNA extracted from neonatal screening DBS is a useful tool to define CYP21A2 gene mutations in 21-OHD diagnostic confirmation for the newborn screening program and that its results are comparable to traditional genotyping.
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Forecasting the extent of the domestic health risk of epidemics by mathematical modeling is a useful tool for evaluating the feasibility of policies for controlling outbreaks. The objective of this study was to develop a time-dependent dynamic simulation model to forecast the COVID-19 autumn-winter outbreak in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, and to assess the effect of social distancing on epidemic spread. The model used was the "Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered" framework which incorporated appropriate compartments relevant to interventions such as quarantine, isolation and treatment. ⋯ The maximum peak was expected to appear between May 8 and Jul 8 depending on the quarantine strategy, and the average number of infectious symptomatic cases were 46 840, 30 494, 23 164, 16 179, and 13 196 when 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% of the population remained in a 5-month-term continuous quarantine, respectively. Only mandatory quarantine was able to delay the maximum peak of infection and significantly reduce the total number of infected individuals and deaths at a 150-day term. The interruption of the quarantine before 120 days of its beginning could generate an even more serious outbreak 30 days later, and surpass the scarce medical resources available for the intensive care of critically-ill patients.
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SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease named COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and developed into the current pandemic. The manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection are highly variable. The worst outcomes are usually associated with advanced age and known risk factors. ⋯ During hospitalization she was simultaneously diagnosed with infection by HIV, COVID-19 and P. jirovecci. The patient evolved favorably upon empirical treatment without requiring invasive maneuvers or ventilatory support. Outpatient follow-up after hospital discharge was uneventful.
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This is a preliminary, multicenter, retrospective cohort study, including 272 consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospitals in Buenos Aires Province, between May 15th and July 1st, 2020, included in an expanded access program to convalescent plasma. Our objectives were to analyze mortality and its independent risk factors, and to assess the occurrence of a favorable evolution, defined as hospital discharge, or stay at the ward, or transfer from ICU to ward. Patients were stratified int o 4 subgroups: admission to the ward with pneumonia and/or oxygen requirement (WARD; n = 100); ICU admission (ICU; n = 87); ICU admission with requirement of mechanical ventilation (ICU-MV; n = 56), and ICU-MV plus septic shock (ICU-MV-SS; N = 29). ⋯ No major adverse effects were recorded. The lack of a control group precluded the estimation of efficacy. However, our 26% mortality rate was higher than that of the treatment arm of clinical trials comparing plasma with usual treatment, which might be ascribed to higher proportion of patients with MV and septic shock in our cohort.