Postgraduate medicine
-
Postgraduate medicine · Apr 2023
ReviewBiomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, symmetrically affecting the small joints. Biomarkers are tools that can be used in the diagnosis and monitoring of RA. ⋯ The investigated biomarkers are helpful tools in clinical practice for diagnosis, monitoring of treatment, and predicting prognosis in RA patients. However, further research is still required to investigate novel biomarkers for the pre-treatment selection of potentially responsive patients before starting therapy for a precision medicine in this area.
-
Postgraduate medicine · Apr 2023
Observational StudyUndergraduate health sciences students' response regarding COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: an observational study.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a major health problem, and its influences may persist with emerging viral variants. The current work was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and learning satisfaction of health sciences students (HSS) regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Overall, participants show high knowledge level and positive attitude toward COVID-19 but fair learning satisfaction during the pandemic. Further studies are needed to improve the learning satisfaction and attitude of HSS in the future.
-
Postgraduate medicine · Apr 2023
Ground-glass opacity on Emergency Department chest X-ray: a risk factor for in-hospital mortality and organ failure in elderly admitted for COVID-19.
Ground-glass opacity is commonly seen on radiographic imaging tests of patients admitted for COVID-19. The main objective of this study is to determine if the presence of ground-glass opacity on chest X-rays carried out at the Emergency Department correlates with significantly higher mortality. A secondary objective is to clarify which characteristics are associated with those patients who presented ground-glass opacity. ⋯ Based on these results, the variable 'finding ground-glass opacity on chest X-rays carried out at the Emergency Department' should be assessed for inclusion in the different calculators that estimate the prognosis/mortality rate of patients admitted for COVID-19.
-
Postgraduate medicine · Apr 2023
ReviewEffectiveness of nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in patients with diabetic kidney disease.
Nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) are a new class of drugs developed to address the medical need for effective and safer treatment to protect the kidney and the heart in patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD). There are several drugs within this class at varying stages of clinical development. Finerenone is the first nonsteroidal MRA approved in the US for treating patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). ⋯ Finally, we show that nonsteroidal MRAs differ from steroidal MRAs based on pharmacology and clinical effects, giving the potential to expand the therapeutic options for patients with DKD. In the recently completed DKD outcome program comprising two randomized clinical trials - FIDELIO-DKD and FIGARO-DKD - and the FIDELITY analysis of both trials evaluating more than 13,000 patients, the nonsteroidal MRA finerenone demonstrated beneficial effects on the kidney and the heart across a broad spectrum of patients with CKD and T2D. The long-term efficacy of finerenone on cardiac and renal morbidity and mortality endpoints, along with the anti-hypertensive efficacy of esaxerenone, widens the scope of available therapies for patients with DKD.