Medicine
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Early outcomes and long-term survival after kidney transplantation in elderly versus younger recipients from the same donor in a matched-pairs analysis.
The elderly are the fastest-growing population on waiting lists for kidney transplantation (KTx). Recognized barriers to KTx in the elderly is early post-transplant mortality and morbidity. To analyze the outcomes of KTx in recipients older than 60 years and, simultaneously, in their younger paired recipients, receiving a graft from the same donor. ⋯ After having excluded donor-derived graft factors, there were no differences in the first-year outcome of KTx between recipients younger and older than 60 years. As life expectancy is lower in the EKT group, the probability of patient and graft survival was also significantly lower in this group. However, death-censored graft survival was not different in the EKT and YKT groups.
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Hemodialysis patients usually have sleep disturbance at varying degrees, which seriously affects the therapeutic efficacy and quality of life. Therefore, improving the sleep quality of hemodialysis patients is the key during treatment. Acupoint therapy can improve the sleep quality of patients. However, guidelines for improving sleep quality of hemodialysis patients by acupoint therapy are scant. This study aims to evaluate the effect of acupoint therapy on sleep quality in hemodialysis patients through a meta-analysis, providing clinical evidences. ⋯ This study will provide a reliable evidence-based basis for conducting acupoint therapy to improve sleep quality in hemodialysis patients.
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The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of lateral and bilateral percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) in treating osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). ⋯ Although both unilateral and bilateral PVP can improve the quality of life of this patient population by managing pain effectively, unilateral PVP offers more benefits, including shorter operation time and less fluoroscopy, and should be recommended in clinical practice for OVCFs.
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Case Reports
Pregnancy exacerbated lymph node metastasis of well differentiated thyroid carcinoma: A case report.
Differentiated thyroid carcinoma is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer during pregnancy, second to breast cancer. Pregnancy can cause an increase in the size of existing thyroid nodules due to the similar structure of placental human chorionic gonadotropin and thyroid stimulating hormone. However, the impact of pregnancy on malignant thyroid tumors is still unclear. ⋯ Pregnancy in differentiated thyroid cancer survivors should be managed and monitored with caution, especially when cancer recurrence is noticed. Further studies are recommended to investigate these previously unreported gene mutations associated with thyroid cancer.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral respiratory disease that spreads rapidly, reaching pandemic status, causing the collapse of numerous health systems, and a strong economic and social impact. The treatment so far has not been well established and there are several clinical trials testing known drugs that have antiviral activity, due to the urgency that the global situation imposes. Drugs with specific mechanisms of action can take years to be discovered, while vaccines may also take a long time to be widely distributed while new virus variants emerge. Thus, drug repositioning has been shown to be a good strategy for defining new therapeutic approaches. Studies of the effect of enriched heparin in the replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro assays justify the advance for clinical tests. ⋯ A phase I/II triple-blind parallel clinical trial will be conducted. Fifty participants with radiological diagnosis of grade IIA pneumonia will be selected, which will be allocated in 2 arms. Participants allocated in Group 1 (placebo) will receive nebulized 0.9% saline. Participants allocated in Group 2 (intervention) will receive nebulized enriched heparin (2.5 mg/mL 0.9% saline). Both groups will receive the respective solutions on a 4/4 hour basis, for 7 days. The main outcomes of interest will be safety (absence of serious adverse events) and efficacy (measured by the viral load).Protocols will be filled on a daily basis, ranging from day 0 (diagnosis) until day 8.