15 research outputs found

    Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

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    PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

    Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

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    PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

    Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

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    Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

    Genetic Diversity and Structure among Isolated Populations of the Endangered Gees Golden Langur in Assam, India.

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    Gee's golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) is an endangered colobine primate, endemic to the semi-evergreen and mixed-deciduous forests of Indo-Bhutan border. During the last few decades, extensive fragmentation has caused severe population decline and local extinction of golden langur from several fragments. However, no studies are available on the impact of habitat fragmentation and the genetic diversity of golden langur in the fragmented habitats. The present study aimed to estimate the genetic diversity in the Indian population of golden langur. We sequenced and analyzed around 500 bases of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region-I from 59 fecal samples of wild langur collected from nine forest fragments. Overall, genetic diversity was high (h = 0.934, π = 0.0244) and comparable with other colobines. Populations in smaller fragments showed lower nucleotide diversity compared to the larger forest fragments. The median-joining network of haplotypes revealed a genetic structure that corresponded with the geographical distribution. The Aie and Champabati Rivers were found to be a barrier to gene flow between golden langur populations. In addition, it also established that T. geei is monophyletic but revealed possible hybridization with capped langur, T. pileatus, in the wild. It is hoped that these findings would result in a more scientific approach towards managing the fragmented populations of this enigmatic species

    Bayesian Inference tree of cytochrome b.

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    <p>Bayesian inference tree reconstructed from 392 bases of cytb. Leaves are labelled with the species and accession codes in parentheses and, for golden langurs, haplotype codes. The numbers at each node are the Bayesian posterior probability values. Sequences generated in the present study and by other authors have been indicated.</p

    Median-joining network.

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    <p>Median-joining network of mtDNA HVRI haplotypes of golden langurs. The size of each circle represents the frequency of each haplotype (N = 59) and the colours represent each fragment. Each bar on the lines connecting two haplotypes represents one mutational step.</p

    Bayesian Inference tree of hypervariable region-I.

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    <p>Bayesian inference tree reconstructed from 518 bases of HVRI. Leaves are labelled with the species and accession codes in parentheses and, for golden langurs, haplotype codes followed by the fragment(s) of origin in parentheses. The numbers at each node are the Bayesian posterior probabilities followed by bootstrap values of the corresponding nodes (where present) in the maximum likelihood tree.</p
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