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Lemming Goldstein posted an update 13 hours, 17 minutes ago
e mainstay of treatment for APL here. Our results confirm the efficacy of this strategy, with high OS and EFS rates being observed 12.5 years after diagnosis.
As arsenic trioxide (ATO) is not currently available in Mexico, anthracycline plus ATRA is the mainstay of treatment for APL here. Our results confirm the efficacy of this strategy, with high OS and EFS rates being observed 12.5 years after diagnosis.
While pain is the hallmark of sickle cell disease (SCD), healthcare personnel are often ill-equipped to adequately treat patients who present in vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). Although symptom severity varies from individual to individual, SCD is characterized by intervallic pain as a result of oxygen deprivation in tissues and organs. Regardless of pain severity, SCD patients are often viewed as drug seekers by healthcare personnel who have concerns regarding patients’ dependence on opioids which may lead to addiction. The objective was to assess the types and amount of opioids used to treat VOC in comparison to Centers for Disease Control opioid prescription guidelines.
Literature search was conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science and hand search. Data were analyzed from 1999 to 2018. Randomized trials, observational, and case studies involved hospitalized adults with SCD who were prescribed opioids to treat VOC. Quality assessment was conducted using Downs and Black checklist. Meta-analysis was not conducted.
Five studies were conducted in the USA, Arabia and the Netherlands, and the USA and Canada were included. Participants were treated with either morphine or morphine milligram equivalent (MME). No study used the same method of opioid administration.
Patients with SCD who are hospitalized secondary to VOC mostly received opioids for pain well within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prescription guidelines. No uniform method exists. Additional research is warranted.
Patients with SCD who are hospitalized secondary to VOC mostly received opioids for pain well within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prescription guidelines. No uniform method exists. Additional research is warranted.Babesiosis is characterized by non-autoimmune hemolytic anemia as a result of invasion of red blood cells by intraerythrocytic protozoans. Upon evaluation of patients who have ongoing hemolysis despite antibiotic treatment, a new entity of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) was recently identified in some patients with babesiosis. The data are limited to case reports and one case series. The aim of this research was to synthetize data on this topic according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines using the PubMed database. In this review, we found that all patients who had developed AIHA were asplenic. All had Coombs test positive for IgG or both IgG and C3 indicating Warm AIHA. Some but not all required blood transfusion and plasma exchange. Majority of patients responded to steroids and had resolution of parasitemia on follow-up. We believe that this review will make the clinicians aware that babesiosis can not only cause non-immune hemolysis but also AIHA. It is important to differentiate between the two entities as antibiotics alone may not be sufficient for immune-mediated hemolysis caused by babesiosis.
Heart failure (HF) readmissions pose a major burden to patients and the healthcare system. We evaluated whether outpatient intravenous (IV) diuretic clinic is a safe and effective strategy to reduce HF hospitalizations.
We reviewed 34 clinic encounters with 27 unique patients (median age 72) who had volume overload refractory to oral diuretics that were treated with IV furosemide in the outpatient clinic. One patient (2.9%) was admitted to the hospital directly, and the rest were discharged home.
More than 80% of the patients had continued weight loss for 7 days (median weight loss 5.4 lb). During the median follow-up period of 15 months, 15 patients (56%) had subsequent HF hospitalizations. HF admission was delayed by a median of 22 days from the clinic visit and 138 days from the previous HF admission prior to clinic visit. Estimated cost saving per admission avoided was $10,395. One patient developed severe hypokalemia (< 3.0 mmol/L), and the remaining had no adverse events.
Outpatient IV diuresis is effective and well tolerated. It leads to significant weight loss, persisting in the majority of patients for 7 days. In select patients, it should be considered as a strategy to rapidly improve symptoms, reduce hospitalizations and decrease costs.
Outpatient IV diuresis is effective and well tolerated. It leads to significant weight loss, persisting in the majority of patients for 7 days. In select patients, it should be considered as a strategy to rapidly improve symptoms, reduce hospitalizations and decrease costs.
Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have shown a range of clinical outcomes. Previous studies have reported that patient comorbidities are predictive of worse clinical outcomes, especially when patients have multiple chronic diseases. We aim to 1) derive a simplified comorbidity evaluation and determine its accuracy of predicting clinical outcomes (i.e., hospital admission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, ventilation, and in-hospital mortality); and 2) determine its performance accuracy in comparison to well-established comorbidity indexes.
This was a single-center retrospective observational study. We enrolled all emergency department (ED) patients with COVID-19 from March 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020. A simplified comorbidity evaluation (COVID-related high-risk chronic condition (CCC)) was derived to predict different clinical outcomes using multivariate logistic regressions. In addition, chronic diseases included in the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and Elixhauser Comorbidity Indlinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19. Its performance accuracies for such predictions are not inferior to those of the CCI or ECI’s.
Given the high prevalence of obesity around the globe, patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are at an increased risk of devastating complications.
A retrospective cohort study was performed to determine the association of basal metabolic index (body mass index (BMI)) with the need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), dialysis, upgrade to an intensive care unit (ICU) and mortality. Independent
-test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to calculate mean differences and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with its 95% confidence interval (CI), respectively.
A total of 176 consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis were included. The mean age was 62.2 years, with 51% being male patients. The mean BMI for non-surviving patients was significantly higher compared to patients surviving on the seventh day of hospitalization (35 vs. 30 kg/m
, P = 0.022). selleck Similarly, patients requiring IMV had a higher BMI (33 vs. 29, P = 0.002) compared to non-intubated patients. The unadjusted OR for patients with a higher BMI requiring IMV (56% vs.