Articles: disease.
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After the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) globally, upgraded quarantine and physical distancing strategy, strict infection measures, and government's strict lockdown have been abided to confront the spread of the COVID-19 in Thailand. During the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about the mental health and psychosocial problems among health care workers and the general population are now arising. Yet, information on mental health and psychosocial problems among health care workers and the general population have not been comprehensively reported in Thailand. As such, we conduct a cross-sectional study, a national online survey to describe the short- and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and psychosocial problems among health care workers and the general population in Thailand. ⋯ TCTR20200425001.
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Observational Study
Physical activity can reduce the prevalence of gallstone disease among males: An observational study.
Several previous studies have reported that physical activity (PA) levels can independently affect the prevalence of gallstone disease (GD) in Western countries. However, this association has not been reported in Eastern countries. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether PA is an independent determinant of GD prevalence in a Korean population, according to the World Health Organizations Global Recommendations on PA for Health. ⋯ The estimated rates of PA and GD among male subjects were 23.7% and 4.6%, whereas the rates among females were 18.4% and 4.2%, respectively. Multivariate analysis suggested that no PA, old age, and higher aspartate aminotransferase level in males and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease status in females were independent factors affecting GD. In our study, PA was associated with a reduction in GD among males but not females.
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Observational Study
Critically ill patients with COVID-19 with ECMO and artificial liver plasma exchange: A retrospective study.
COVID-19 is an emerging infectious disease capable of causing severe pneumonia. We aimed to characterize a group of critically ill patients in a single-center study. This was a retrospective case series of 23 patients with confirmed COVID-19-related critical illness in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in Hangzhou Zhejiang Province between January 22 and March 20, 2020. ⋯ Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation reduced the requirements for ventilator support. Artificial liver plasma exchange significantly reduced inflammatory cytokine levels. These supportive therapies helped to extend the patients' survival times and increase the chance of follow-up treatments.
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Case Reports
Staphylococcus saccharolyticus infection: case series with a PRISMA-compliant systemic review.
Staphylococcus saccharolyticus is a rare cause of human infectious disease. The clinical characteristics and treatment of patients with S saccharolyticus infections remain largely unknown. ⋯ S saccharolyticus should be added to the list of anaerobic microorganisms that are able to cause empyema. A prolonged anaerobic culture is critical to improve the yield of this possibly underestimated pathogen. The time to positive culture of S saccharolyticus may not help to distinguish true-positive growth from contaminated growth. Acute or subacute courses and systemic evidence of infection may contribute to judge the clinical significance of positive cultures and avoid unnecessary antibiotic treatment. β-Lactam agents plus fluoroquinolones or vancomycin/teicoplanin or clindamycin may be appropriate to achieve full coverage of the β-lactam resistant bacteria.
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Observational Study
Apoptosis in cerebrospinal fluid as outcome predictors in severe traumatic brain injury: An observational study.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), due to its high mortality and morbidity, is an important research topic. Apoptosis plays a pathogenic role in a series of neurological disorders, from neurodegenerative diseases to acute neurological lesions. In this study, we analyzed the association between apoptosis and the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), to examine the potential of apoptosis as a biomarker for a TBI outcome. ⋯ However, the AUC for their combined prediction was 0.978, with a specificity and sensitivity of 96.0% and 95.2%, respectively, showing that the combined prediction was more reliable than that of the 2 separate factors. We demonstrated that caspase-3, cytochrome C, sFas, and caspase-9 were significantly increased in the CSF of patients following severe TBI. Furthermore, we found that ICP and caspase-3 were more reliable for outcome prediction in combination, rather than separately.