Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
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Pericardial disease represents a large diversity of inflammation related injury of the pericardium. Multifactorial causes may contribute to acute and recurrent pericarditis, pericardial effusion without major hemodynamic compromise, cardiac tamponade or constrictive pericarditis. Currently, inflammatory pericardial pathologies are observed in cases of SARS-CoV-2-infection or after vaccination. Beside established anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies with NSAID, corticosteroids and colchicine, auto-inflammation and inflammasomes seam to offer more specific targets for advanced treatment options.
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The globally increasing prevalence of obesity represents a key medical and socioeconomic challenge. Due to related comorbidities and complications such as arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, fatty liver disease, and arteriosclerosis, obesity leads to a significant statistical reduction in lifespan. Currently, bariatric surgery is the most effective approach to manage body weight and comorbidities while lifestyle intervention as basic obesity therapy and medical treatment often do not lead to sufficient and sustainable weight loss. ⋯ Apart from weight control, improvement in cardiometabolic risk factors can be achieved with this treatment. Moreover, other drugs, mostly based on incretin mono- or multiagonism, are currently developed and may open further effective treatment options for obesity and its complications in the near future. On a health political level, first steps for the development of a structured treatment program (DMP) for obesity are in progress to enable early guideline-based and structured treatment of obesity, and to prevent the obesity associated complications.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Jun 2022
[Important arboviral diseases in returning travelers: dengue, chikungunya and zika].
Arboviral infections are an important differential diagnosis in returning travelers with fever, muscle or joint pain and rash. Arboviruses have spread widely around the globe in the last decades. The most common arboviral infections in returning travelers from tropical and subtropical areas are dengue, chikungunya and zika. ⋯ Instead, travelers should delay conception for up to three months after returning from a zika endemic area. Dengue, chikungunya and zika vaccine development has been hampered by difficulties, for example antibody-dependent-enhancement or the unpredictability of outbreaks, and up to now no vaccines for travelers have been licensed. Yet several promising vaccine candidates are currently under development.