Articles: disease.
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Ann Acad Med Singap · Sep 2020
Managing a Renal Transplant Programme During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Practical Experience from a Singapore Transplant Centre.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly affected the way healthcare is delivered in Singapore. Healthcare services such as renal transplantation had to rapidly adjust and meet the needs to (1) protect patients and staff, (2) ramp up, conserve or redeploy resources while (3) ensuring that critical services remained operational. This paper aims to describe the experience of the renal transplant programme at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in responding to the risks and constraints posed by the pandemic. ⋯ Though the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced access to kidney transplantation, opportunities arose to adopt telemedicine into mainstream transplant practice as well as use electronic platforms to streamline work processes. Screening protocols were established to ensure that transplantation could be performed safely, while webinars reached out to empower patients to take precautions against COVID-19.
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Heart failure is one of the most common reasons for inpatient treatment and one of the most common causes of death in Germany. In addition to coronary heart disease (ischemic cardiomyopathy, ICM), there are also numerous other diseases as non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, NICM. ⋯ The course can be favorably influenced by cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs). There are different uses of CIEDs which are shown in this article.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly spreading disease that has caused extensive burden to individuals, families, countries, and the world. Effective treatments of COVID-19 are urgently needed. ⋯ Our results show that dexamethasone and remdesivir might be beneficial for COVID-19 patients, but the certainty of the evidence was low to very low, so more trials are needed. We can exclude the possibility of hydroxychloroquine versus standard care reducing the risk of death and serious adverse events by 20% or more. Otherwise, no evidence-based treatment for COVID-19 currently exists. This review will continuously inform best practice in treatment and clinical research of COVID-19.
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Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback · Sep 2020
Review Meta AnalysisHeart Rate Variability Biofeedback Improves Emotional and Physical Health and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis.
We performed a systematic and meta analytic review of heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) for various symptoms and human functioning. We analyzed all problems addressed by HRVB and all outcome measures in all studies, whether or not relevant to the studied population, among randomly controlled studies. Targets included various biological and psychological problems and issues with athletic, cognitive, and artistic performance. ⋯ HRVB improves symptoms and functioning in many areas, both in the normal and pathological ranges. It appears useful as a complementary treatment. Further research is needed to confirm its efficacy for particular applications.