Bratisl Med J
-
Dear editors: We propose novel strategies to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, that are aimed at high-risk groups and might reduce the progression to severe forms of COVID and thus decrease the very high case fatality rate. Following the first reports of the outbreak of several cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of December 2019, a novel beta coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or 2019-nCoV) as the main causative agent was identified while the disease associated with was named by WHO as COVID-19 (1, 2). The outbreak has rapidly spread globally with more than 150.000 cases detected in over 100 countries as of March 13, 2020. ⋯ Given the alarming global situation and rapidly evolving large scale pandemics, there is an urgent need for effective strategies to prevent the spread of the disease and decrease its high CFR. The gravity of the situation requires to consider even novel unorthodox strategies to control the outbreak and high lethality of COVID-19. (Tab. 2, Ref. 21). Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, distress syndrome, lopinavir/ritonavir, ribavirin, chloroquine, interferons.
-
The recent Coronavirus 2019 outbreak took the world by surprise and called for global drastic measures. At this early point in the timeline of the pandemic, several questions remain open until the results of large scale studies become available. ⋯ Focusing healthcare resources on necessary treatment and prevention and combining efforts for developing feasible solutions will be decisive for time needed to achieve worldwide containment (Tab. 1, Ref. 23). Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus 2019, pandemic, public health.
-
The objectives of this study were to determine the prognostic value of expression levels of selected biomarkers and their statistical analysis in relation to survival and standard histopathologic examination and other clinicopathologic variables in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). ⋯ Low expression levels of Ki-67 and high expression levels of E-cadherin positively affect survival of patients, whereas aberrant expressions pose poorer prognosis (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 33).
-
Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile is the most common pathogen of nosocomial and antibiotic-related diarrhea in health-care facilities. The aim of the analysis was to show the testing algorithm and to identify hypervirulent strains (suspected RT 027). ⋯ The results of PCR ribotyping showed a high prevalence of hypervirulent and toxigenic ribotypes in the studied sample. A resistance to vancomycin was found in one isolate. The PCR method contributed to the rapid laboratory diagnosis and thus treatment of high risk patients or was used as a third step in in the case of unclear results of standard diagnostic methods(Tab. 1, Fig. 4, Ref. 18). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.
-
Observational Study
Impact of the anatomical location and the number of metastatic lymph nodes on gastric cancer patient´s survival.
The most serious problem in surgical treatment of gastric cancer includes the area of resection and the extent of lymphadenectomy. The extent of gastric resection is determined by the extent of tumor affection. The aim of radical surgical intervention is to achieve microscopically clear resection line, since R0 resection is the main criterion for the patient´s prognosis. Curative surgical resection for gastric cancer includes the lymph nodes dissection. In the treatment of gastric cancer, there are two views on the importance of lymphadenectomy. The Far East considers that operation improves the survival and the Europe considers that surgery is not curative, but it determines the staging and prognosis. There is also a difference in staging systems. The one from East is importance based on the anatomical location of affected lymph nodes, the second from Europe is based on the number of positive lymph nodes. ⋯ Our retrospective study confirmed the strongest correlation between the patient´s prognosis and the anatomic localization of the affected lymph nodes. This correlation was not statistically significant compared to the correlation between patient´s prognosis and the number of positive lymph nodes. It leads us to the conclusion that both classification systems are comparable and the difference is statistically insignificant (Tab. 4, Fig. 8, Ref. 16).