Articles: disease.
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Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death globally. Angina pectoris is closely associated with coronary artery insufficiency, which seriously affects the quality of life and work of patients. Hypercholesterolemia and hypertension (HTN) are risk factors for CHD angina pectoris. The correlation between hypercholesterolemia with or without HTN and the severity of coronary arteries has not been clarified. ⋯ Through clinical research data, the study will help to provide guidance for the prevention and treatment of CHD angina pectoris complicated with diseases and promote further research.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the novel betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have mild disease with unspecific symptoms, but about 5% become critically ill with respiratory failure, septic shock and multiple organ failure. An unknown proportion of infected individuals never experience COVID-19 symptoms although they are infectious, that is, they remain asymptomatic. Those who develop the disease, go through a presymptomatic period during which they are infectious. Universal screening for SARS-CoV-2 infections to detect individuals who are infected before they present clinically, could therefore be an important measure to contain the spread of the disease. ⋯ The evidence base for the effectiveness of screening comes from two mathematical modelling studies and is limited by their assumptions. Low-certainty evidence suggests that screening at travel hubs may slightly slow the importation of infected cases. This review highlights the uncertainty and variation in accuracy of screening strategies. A high proportion of infected individuals may be missed and go on to infect others, and some healthy individuals may be falsely identified as positive, requiring confirmatory testing and potentially leading to the unnecessary isolation of these individuals. Further studies need to evaluate the utility of rapid laboratory tests, combined screening, and repeated screening. More research is also needed on reference standards with greater accuracy than RT-PCR. Given the poor sensitivity of existing approaches, our findings point to the need for greater emphasis on other ways that may prevent transmission such as face coverings, physical distancing, quarantine, and adequate personal protective equipment for frontline workers.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2020
Quarantine alone or in combination with other public health measures to control COVID-19: a rapid review.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly emerging disease classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). To support the WHO with their recommendations on quarantine, we conducted a rapid review on the effectiveness of quarantine during severe coronavirus outbreaks. ⋯ The current evidence is limited because most studies on COVID-19 are mathematical modelling studies that make different assumptions on important model parameters. Findings consistently indicate that quarantine is important in reducing incidence and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic, although there is uncertainty over the magnitude of the effect. Early implementation of quarantine and combining quarantine with other public health measures is important to ensure effectiveness. In order to maintain the best possible balance of measures, decision makers must constantly monitor the outbreak and the impact of the measures implemented. This review was originally commissioned by the WHO and supported by Danube-University-Krems. The update was self-initiated by the review authors.
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Anastomotic leakage (AL) is a serious clinical complication after anterior resection for rectal cancer and will lead to an increase in postoperative mortality. However, the effect on long-term oncology outcomes remains controversial. ⋯ AL has a negative effect on local recurrence and long-term survival (including overall survival, cancer-specific survival, and disease-free survival) after anterior resection for rectal cancer, but not related to distant recurrence.