Assessment of health-related quality of life of COVID-19 patients during follow-up

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the quality of life of individuals worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its associated factors among COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital. Methods: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients who were discharged from medicine department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and did their first-month follow-up from April to September 2021. A validated Bengali version of International Quality of Life Assessment, Short form – 36 (SF-36) questionnaire was used to assess the HRQOL status. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done for identifying factors associated with low HRQOL. Result: Out of 225 patients, the mean (standard deviation) age was 36.9 (14.2) years and four in every ten patients were women. Out of eight subgroups, almost all scored averagely 79 out of 100. Older age, rural residence and severe to critical disease was reported as factors for low physical and mental component summary of SF-36. Conclusion: COVID-19 patients with older age, rural residence and having severe to critical disease condition need to be addressed critically as they have a higher chance of having low HRQOL status after COVID-19 infection

A 42-year-old female presented with asymptomatic massive splenomegaly

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 42-year-old female hailing from Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh was admitted with the complaints of abdominal pain which was more marked in the left upper abdomen. Fifteen days before admission in this department, she had a history of physical assault, since then she was experiencing pain over different parts of her body including abdomen. She took analgesic for this pain. Other regional pain subsided but the abdominal pain was persisting

A 42-year-old female presented with asymptomatic massive splenomegaly

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 42-year-old female hailing from Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh was admitted with the complaints of abdominal pain which was more marked in the left upper abdomen. Fifteen days before admission in this department, she had a history of physical assault, since then she was experiencing pain over different parts of her body including abdomen. She took analgesic for this pain. Other regional pain subsided but the abdominal pain was persisting

An elderly man presented with autoimmune haemolytic anaemia- a consequence of severe corona virus disease 19 (COVID-19)

Autoimmune hemolytic anaemia (AIHA) can be caused by many diseases like connective tissue disease, lymphoproliferative disorder, certain infections and various medications. The coronavirus disease 19(COVID-19) can cause an increased risk of thrombosis. But, the association of AIHA with COVID-19 is not well understood. Here, in this case report a 45-year-old man who presented with fever, cough, anaemia and splenomegaly. On further investigation, he was confirmed as severe COVID-19 case with AIHA. Subsequently he was managed with prednisolone with good results. BSMMU J 2021; 14 (COVID -19 Supplement): 57-5

Assessment of health-related quality of life of COVID-19 patients during follow-up

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the quality of life of individuals worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its associated factors among COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital. Methods: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients who were discharged from medicine department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and did their first-month follow-up from April to September 2021. A validated Bengali version of International Quality of Life Assessment, Short form – 36 (SF-36) questionnaire was used to assess the HRQOL status. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done for identifying factors associated with low HRQOL. Result: Out of 225 patients, the mean (standard deviation) age was 36.9 (14.2) years and four in every ten patients were women. Out of eight subgroups, almost all scored averagely 79 out of 100. Older age, rural residence and severe to critical disease was reported as factors for low physical and mental component summary of SF-36. Conclusion: COVID-19 patients with older age, rural residence and having severe to critical disease condition need to be addressed critically as they have a higher chance of having low HRQOL status after COVID-19 infection. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal 2023;16(2): 91-9

Leishmanial Hepatitis with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection Treated Successfully with Liquid Form of Liposomal Amphotericin B - A Case Report

Hepatic involvement either due to leishmaniasis or due to coexisting viral infection sometime poses a problem for the clinicians. Atypical presentation is also challenging for them. We present a case of visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) from a non endemic zone, co infection with hepatitis B virus simulating chronic viral hepatitis successfully treated with liquid form of liposomal amphotericin B.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bsmmuj.v5i1.11018 BSMMU J 2012; 5(1):55-56

Non-secretory multiple myeloma with extramedulary plasmocytoma

Non-secretory multiple myeloma (NSMM) is an uncommon variation of the classic form of multiple myeloma (MM) that has au analogous clinical and radiologic presentation except for the absence of the M-protein in sernm and/or urine. NSMM may have or not detectable monoclonal free light chain in urine/serum. We describe here a case of a 46-year-old woman who presented with back pain and lower limb weakness. A tumour lesion at DI level and multiple osteolytic bone lesions were found. This woman had no other symptoms and her basic blood biochemistry were nonnal. She had normal serum and urine protein electrophoresis. Biopsy from the D1 vertebra showed plasmocytoma. In the bone marrow, 20% atypical plasma cell fow1d, all were being CD38+ and CD 138+ in flowcytometry, confirming the diagnosis of myeloma presenting as NSMM. A high index of suspicion is needed to diagnose cases like this, as the biology ofNSMM is not completely understood

Non-contact smart sensing of physical activities during quarantine period using SDR technology

The global pandemic of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is dramatically changing the lives of humans and results in limitation of activities, especially physical activities, which lead to various health issues such as cardiovascular, diabetes, and gout. Physical activities are often viewed as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers enormous health benefits; on the other hand, it can cause irreparable damage to health. Falls during physical activities are a significant cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries. Therefore, continuous monitoring of physical activities is crucial during the quarantine period to detect falls. Even though wearable sensors can detect and recognize human physical activities, in a pandemic crisis, it is not a realistic approach. Smart sensing with the support of smartphones and other wireless devices in a non-contact manner is a promising solution for continuously monitoring physical activities and assisting patients suffering from serious health issues. In this research, a non-contact smart sensing through the walls (TTW) platform is developed to monitor human physical activities during the quarantine period using software-defined radio (SDR) technology. The developed platform is intelligent, flexible, portable, and has multi-functional capabilities. The received orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals with fine-grained 64-subcarriers wireless channel state information (WCSI) are exploited for classifying different activities by applying machine learning algorithms. The fall activity is classified separately from standing, walking, running, and bending with an accuracy of 99.7% by using a fine tree algorithm. This preliminary smart sensing opens new research directions to detect COVID-19 symptoms and monitor non-communicable and communicable diseases

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

Population‐based cohort study of outcomes following cholecystectomy for benign gallbladder diseases

Background The aim was to describe the management of benign gallbladder disease and identify characteristics associated with all‐cause 30‐day readmissions and complications in a prospective population‐based cohort. Methods Data were collected on consecutive patients undergoing cholecystectomy in acute UK and Irish hospitals between 1 March and 1 May 2014. Potential explanatory variables influencing all‐cause 30‐day readmissions and complications were analysed by means of multilevel, multivariable logistic regression modelling using a two‐level hierarchical structure with patients (level 1) nested within hospitals (level 2). Results Data were collected on 8909 patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 167 hospitals. Some 1451 cholecystectomies (16·3 per cent) were performed as an emergency, 4165 (46·8 per cent) as elective operations, and 3293 patients (37·0 per cent) had had at least one previous emergency admission, but had surgery on a delayed basis. The readmission and complication rates at 30 days were 7·1 per cent (633 of 8909) and 10·8 per cent (962 of 8909) respectively. Both readmissions and complications were independently associated with increasing ASA fitness grade, duration of surgery, and increasing numbers of emergency admissions with gallbladder disease before cholecystectomy. No identifiable hospital characteristics were linked to readmissions and complications. Conclusion Readmissions and complications following cholecystectomy are common and associated with patient and disease characteristics