Medicine
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Observational Study
Coagulation parameters predictive of repeated implantation failure in Chinese women: A retrospective study.
Repeated implantation failure (RIF) greatly influences pregnancy rate after assisted reproductive technologies (ART) with elusive causes. Our study aimed to explore coagulation parameters in association with RIF and establish a model to predict the risk of RIF in Chinese women. Coagulation parameters, including prothrombin time (PT), thrombin time (TT), activated partial prothrombin time (APTT), D-dimer (DD), fibrin degradation products (FDP), fibrinogen (FG), and platelet aggregation induced by arachidonic acid (AA) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) were measured in RIF patients and controls. ⋯ ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of the model was 0.85 with an optimal cut-off point of the predicted probability being P = .65, leading to a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity 0.75. We found that coagulation parameters including PT, APTT, TT and platelet aggregation induced by AA are predictive of RIF in Chinese women. Our results highlight the potential of anti-coagulation therapies to lower the risk of RIF.
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Brucea javanica oil emulsion (BJOE), extracted from the Chinese herb Bruceae Fructus (Yadanzi), is a broad-spectrum anti-tumor drug and has been widely used for the treatment of liver cancer in China. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the efficacy and safety of BJOE for the treatment of liver cancer. ⋯ 10.17605/OSF.IO/UC8XQ.
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Review Meta Analysis
Association of elevated inflammatory markers and severe COVID-19: A meta-analysis.
Our study aimed to assess the existing evidence on whether severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with elevated inflammatory markers. The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, and China Science and Technology Journal databases were searched to identify studies published between January 1 and April 21, 2020 that assayed inflammatory markers in COVID-19 patients. Three reviewers independently examined the literature, extracted relevant data, and assessed the risk of publication bias before including the meta-analysis studies. ⋯ Meta-analysis showed that patients with severe disease showed elevated levels of white blood cell count (WMD: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.78-1.52), C-reactive protein (WMD: 38.85, 95% CI: 31.19-46.52), procalcitonin (WMD: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.06-0.11), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (WMD: 10.15, 95% CI: 5.03-15.46), interleukin-6 (WMD: 23.87, 95% CI: 15.95-31.78), and interleukin-10 (WMD: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.97-2.28). Similarly, COVID-19 patients who died during follow-up showed significantly higher levels of white blood cell count (WMD: 4.11, 95% CI: 3.25-4.97), C-reactive protein (WMD: 74.18, 95% CI: 56.63-91.73), procalcitonin (WMD: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.11-0.42), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (WMD: 10.94, 95% CI: 4.79-17.09), and interleukin-6 (WMD: 59.88, 95% CI: 19.46-100.30) than survivors. Severe COVID-19 is associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers than a mild disease, so tracking these markers may allow early identification or even prediction of disease progression.
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Multicenter Study
Impact of previous HIV resistance and virologic failures on virologic outcome following a switch to dolutegravir with 2 NRTIs among people living with HIV.
There is uncertainty regarding the potential virologic outcome associated with a change in antiretroviral therapy (ARV) among PLHIV who had previous documented virologic failure or who have been exposure to mono/dual nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) therapy. The objective was to measure the potential impact of exposure to previous virologic failure or mono/dual NRTI regimen on virologic outcome of PLHIV following a switch to dolutegravir with 2 NRTIs from a viremia suppressive ARV therapy. Data from the Quebec HIV Cohort including 10219 PLHIV were collected through routine clinical care at 4 clinical sites in Montreal, Canada. ⋯ Post-switch virologic failure after 30 months occurred in 4.1% (95% CI 2.1-7.9) of exposed compared to 4.1% (95% CI 2.3-7.4) in unexposed participants. The adjusted hazard ratio for the association between exposure and post-switch virologic failure was 0.84 (95% CI 0.35-2.01). Our findings suggest that switch to dolutegravir with 2 NRTIs from a suppressive therapy is a safe option for PLHIV with documented virologic failure and/or previous exposure to mono/dual NRTI therapy.