Medicine
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Northern Italy has been particularly hit by the current Covid-19 pandemic. Italian deceased patients have a mean age of 78.5 years and only 1.2% have no comorbidities. These data started a public debate whether patients die "with" or "from" Covid-19. If on one hand the public opinion has been persuaded to believe that Covid-19 infection has poor outcomes just in elderly and/or fragile subjects, on the other hand, hospitals are admitting an increasing number of healthy young patients needing semi-intensive or intensive care units. ⋯ Health conditions that are most reported as risk factors are common cardiovascular diseases that can be managed in modern clinical practice. Through a brief illustrative clinical case, we would like to underline how Covid-19 can be per se the cause of death in patients that would otherwise have had an acceptable life expectancy.
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Colon cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. To identify the candidate genes in the carcinogenesis and progression of colon cancer, the microarray datasets GSE10950, GSE44861 and GSE74602 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and functional enrichment analyses were performed. ⋯ Thirteen hub genes were identified, and poor OS of patients was only associated with high expression of Matrix Metallopeptidase 7 (MMP7), which may be involved in the carcinogenesis, invasion or recurrence of colon cancer. In conclusion, we propose that the DEGs and hub genes identified in the present study may be regarded as diagnostic biomarkers for colon cancer. Moreover, the overexpression of MMP7 may correlate with poor prognosis.
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No national epidemiological investigations have been conducted recently regarding facial lacerations. The study was performed using the data of 3,634,229 people during the 5-year period from 2014 to 2018 archived by the National Health Information Database (NHID) of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Preschool and children under 10 years old accounted for about one-third of patients. ⋯ The "T-shaped'" area around forehead is vulnerable to injury. Total cost of medical care benefits per patient in tertiary hospitals was about 7 times on average than in health agencies. Regarding functional, behavioral, and aesthetic outcomes, more attention should be paid to epidemiologic data and hospital costs for facial lacerations.
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Case Reports
Two AOS genes attributed to familial exudative vitreoretinopathy with microcephaly: Two case reports.
Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) is an inherited disorder, which is mostly reported to be associated with the mutation of genes involved in the Wnt signaling pathway related to β-catenin. To the best of our knowledge, the involvement of Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS) genes in FEVR patients have not been reported before. ⋯ Microcephaly could be associated with some form of retinopathy. We proposed that mutation of DOCK6 and ARHGAP31 genes could be the possible cause of FEVR associated with microcephaly. Our study suggested that these genes may be candidate genes of FEVR.
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Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy compared with other surgeries for lumbar disc herniation: A meta-analysis.
This meta-analysis was performed to investigate whether percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) had a superior effect than other surgeries in the treatment of patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH). ⋯ PELD was associated with better effects and similar complications with other surgeries in LDH. However, it also resulted in a higher recurrence rate. Considering the potential limitations in the present study, further large-scale, well-performed randomized trials are needed to verify our findings.