Medicine
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Observational Study
Corona Virus Disease 2019 patients with different disease severity or age range: A single-center study of clinical features and prognosis.
This study aimed to describe clinical characteristics and prognosis of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, and to compare these features among COVID-19 patients with different disease severity or age range. Totally, 129 COVID-19 patients were retrospectively enrolled, and the information about demographics, comorbidities, medical histories, clinical symptoms, and laboratory findings at the time of hospital admission were collected. Meanwhile, their clinical outcomes were recorded. ⋯ Subgroup analyses disclosed that severe/critical patients exhibited increased neutrophil count, neutrophils, C-reactive protein, calcitonin, alpha-hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, creatinine, and D-dimer levels, and more deaths compared with that in moderate patients. Regarding age, it correlated with more common fever, higher levels of red blood cell, neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, neutrophils, red cell volume distribution width standard deviation-coefficient of variation, calcitonin, alpha-hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase, Creatine Kinase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, and D-dimer, raised death rate and prolonged hospital stay. Our findings provide valuable evidence regarding clinical characteristics and prognosis of COVID-19 patients to help with the understanding of the disease and prognosis improvement.
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Observational Study
Sonography-guided trigger point injections in abdominal myofascial pain syndrome.
Even though chronic abdominal pain is 1 of the most common reasons for hospital visits, diagnostic testing is often time-consuming and treatment is inadequate. Abdominal myofascial pain syndrome (AMPS) is usually not included as a differential diagnosis, but it should be considered in cases of chronic abdominal pain. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of AMPS and to assess the effect of sonography-guided trigger point injections (TPI). ⋯ Moreover, patients who received the injections 2 or more times tended to have more significant pain reduction than those who received a single injection (P < .001). Patients with AMPS suffer from long-term pain and undergo many hospital visits and diagnostic tests. TPI with lidocaine can be an effective and safe treatment for patients with chronic AMPS.
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Observational Study
Correlation analysis and clinical significance of CA125, HE4, DDI, and FDP in type II epithelial ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is one of the common female malignant tumors. The early diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer has been a research hotspot. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the correlations between the levels of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), D-dimer (DDI), and fibrinogen degradation product (FDP) in patients with type II epithelial ovarian cancer. ⋯ The levels of CA125 and HE4 are the traditional detection indexes for patients with type II epithelial ovarian cancer, and these 2 indicators reflected the degree of disease and prognosis. The levels of DDI and FDP were closely related to the levels of CA125 and HE4 in type II epithelial ovarian cancer, and they also helped to assess the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer. Further larger-scale prospective cohort studies are warranted to determine these associations in the future.
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Observational Study
Application of MR diffusion imaging for non-invasive assessment of acute kidney injury after lung transplantation.
To assess whether MR diffusion imaging may be applied for non-invasive detection of renal changes correlating with clinical diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients after lung transplantation (lutx). Fifty-four patients (mean age 49.6, range 26-64 years) after lutx were enrolled in a prospective clinical study and underwent functional MR imaging of the kidneys in the early postoperative period. Baseline s-creatinine ranged from 39 to 112 μmol/L. ⋯ Reduction of renal ADC correlated significantly with acute loss of renal function after lutx (decrease of renal function in the postoperative period and glomerular filtration rate on the day of MRI). MR diffusion imaging enables non-invasive assessment of renal changes correlating with AKI early after lutx. Reduction of diffusion anisotropy was present in all patients after lutx, whereas marked reduction of renal ADC was observed only in the group of lutx recipients with AKI and correlated with renal function impairment.
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Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19 is different from the ARDS caused by other infections. Conventional mechanical ventilation strategies using high levels of PEEP may not be beneficial and can even be harmful to patient with ARDS from COVID-19. So the ventilation strategies should be adjusted in order to improve the pulmonary ventilation function and oxygenation status, and outcomes of the patient. ⋯ This case demonstrated that the low tidal volume with low levels of PEEP ventilation strategy may be more suitable for ARDS from COVID-19.