European journal of clinical investigation
-
Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Nov 2020
The Role of Methylprednisolone on Preventing Disease Progression for Hospitalized Patients with Severe COVID-19.
COVID-19 is a public health emergency that is spreading worldwide and seriously affecting the global economy. Data on the effectiveness and safety of the use of methylprednisolone for patients with severe COVID-19 remain limited. ⋯ Data from the limited sample showed that the early use of low or medium doses of methylprednisolone has a positive effect for patients with severe COVID-19 younger than 65 years old, and excessive immune response and cytokine storm may be some of the reasons for the effectiveness.
-
Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Nov 2020
Observational StudyUnravelling gender specific factors that link obesity to albuminuria.
Obesity is a major public health problem, which continues to be diagnosed and classified by BMI, excluding the most elemental concepts of the precision medicine approach. Obesity does not equally affect males and females, even with the same BMI. Microalbuminuria is a risk marker of cardiovascular disease closely related to obesity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the gender-dependent differences in the development of early obesity-related disease, focusing on pathologic microalbuminuria (PMA). ⋯ Our findings support that there is an individual threshold of fat amount necessary to develop obesity-dependent PMA and that gender plays a major role in the interplay between PMA and adiposity.
-
Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Nov 2020
Observational StudyImpact of atrial fibrillation in critically-ill patients admitted to a stepdown unit.
Limited data are available on the clinical course of patients with history of atrial fibrillation (AF) when admitted in an intensive care environment. We aimed to describe the occurrence of major adverse events in AF patients admitted to a stepdown care unit (SDU) and to analyse clinical factors associated with outcomes, impact of dicumarolic oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy impact and performance of clinical risk scores in this setting. ⋯ In critically ill AF patients admitted to a SDU, adverse outcomes are highly prevalent. OAC use is associated to an increased risk of therapeutic failure, clinical scores seem unhelpful in predicting stroke and MH, suggesting a highly individualized approach in AF management in this setting.
-
For differentiating heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) from HF with reduced EF (HFrEF), N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is less accurate. Decreased expression of microRNA-19b (miR-19b) is associated with increased cardiac-fibrosis. We aim to evaluate the value of miR-19b in diagnosing HFrEF patients. ⋯ On top of NT-proBNP, miR-19b added the value in diagnosing HFrEF. But in view of satisfactory accuracy of NT-proBNP in predicting HF from the healthy volunteers, miR-19b did not provide incremental value.