Absolute Hyperglycemia versus Stress Hyperglycemia Ratio for the Prognosis of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in the First Months of the Pandemic: A Retrospective Study

Diabetes is a risk factor for greater severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR) is an independent predictor of critical illness, and it is reported to have a stronger association than absolute hyperglycemia. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of absolute hyperglycemia and SHR with the severity of COVID-19, since there are no studies investigating SHR in patients with COVID-19. We conducted a retrospective observational study on hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the first months of the pandemic, regarding absolute hyperglycemia, SHR, and severity outcomes. Of the 374 patients, 28.1% had a previous diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Absolute hyperglycemia (64.8% versus 22.7%; p < 0.01) and SHR [1.1 (IQR 0.9-1.3) versus 1.0 (IQR 0.9-1.2); p < 0.001] showed a statistically significant association with previous diabetes. Absolute hyperglycemia showed a significant association with clinical severity of COVID-19 (79.0% versus 62.7%; p < 0.001), need for oxygen therapy (74.8% versus 54.4%; p < 0.001), invasive mechanical ventilation (28.6% versus 11.6%; p < 0.001), and intensive care unit (30.3% versus 14.9%; p = 0.002), but not with mortality; by contrast, there was no statistically significant association between SHR and all these parameters. Our results are in agreement with the literature regarding the impact of absolute hyperglycemia on COVID-19 severity outcomes, while SHR was not a significant marker. We therefore suggest that SHR should not be evaluated in all patients admitted in the hospital for COVID-19, and we encourage the standard measures at admission of blood glucose and HbA1c levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Small bowel perforation by a piece of china with a synchronous asymptomatic sigmoid carcinoma: A case report

A 75 year old gentleman who presented with an incarcerated paraumibilical hernia was found intraoperatively to have small bowel perforation due to a piece of china with a synchronous asymptomatic sigmoid carcinoma

Ecodoppler Neurovascular em Contexto de Urgência

Em contexto de urgência o Cardiopneumologista desempenha um papel fundamental pela realização de diversos meios complementares de diagnóstico e terapêutica. Entre estes surge o Ecodoppler Neurovascular, técnica ultrassonográfica inócua, não invasiva, de fácil aplicação, que permite a obtenção de um elevado número de achados clínicos, essenciais ao encaminhamento do doente em qualquer contexto clínico. Assim este exame demonstra a sua aplicabilidade essencialmente em pacientes neurocríticos ou outros com suspeita e/ou diagnóstico de Acidente Isquémico Transitório, Acidente Vascular Cerebral (AVC), Hemorragia Subaracnoideia, Anemia das Células Falciformes e Hidrocefalia. Ainda em contexto de urgência o Ecodoppler Neurovascular assume real importância na orientação e tratamento de doentes da Via Verde AVC, uma das principais e preocupantes causas de morbilidade e mortalidade em todo o Mundo. A realização destes exames na prática hospitalar, neste conjunto de patologias, permite uma correcta e precoce orientação terapêutica, com consequente rentabilização de custos e melhorias na qualidade do tratamento. No entanto, é de referir que esta abordagem só é possível de acordo com a existência de equipas multidisciplinares de elevada relevância especialmente em contexto de urgência, local específico de encaminhamento de pacientes urgentes ou não urgentes. A título de conclusão a realização do exame Ecodoppler Neurovascular no Serviço de Urgência traduz um serviço de qualidade, permitindo redireccionar e encaminhar os doentes, adequando as devidas medidas diagnósticas e terapêuticas a instituir

A note on clinical presentations of amebic liver abscess: an overview from 62 Thai patients

BACKGROUND: Amebic liver abscess is a tropical disease with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. Given the often nonspecific nature of the complaints related to amebic abscess, a retrospective review of patients with confirmed disease to recognize the most common patterns of presentation is useful. Here, we study the clinical presentations of 62 Thai patients with amebic liver abscess. We also compare the clinical presentations of Anti HIV seronegative and Anti HIV seropositive patients. METHODS: A retrospective case review was carried out for 62 Thai patients who had been diagnosed with amebic liver abscess. Clinical information was collected, including symptoms and signs, location and number of abscesses. The Anti HIV serology laboratory investigation was also reviewed. RESULTS: According to our study, the common clinical symptoms and signs are abdominal pain (85.5 %), fever and chills (74.2 %), and abdominal tenderness (69.4 %). The location of the abscess was predominantly in the right lobe (74.2 %), and most of patients had a single abscess (77.4 %). Similar trends in clinical presentations were observed in both Anti HIV seropositive and Anti HIV seronegative subjects. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the clinical presentations of our amebic liver abscess patients were similar to those in previous reports. A similarity to those in the pyogenic liver abscess patients can be observed. Nevertheless, we could not detect important significant differences in the clinical presentations between Anti HIV seropositive and Anti HIV seronegative groups of patients

Positivity of the English language

Over the last million years, human language has emerged and evolved as a fundamental instrument of social communication and semiotic representation. People use language in part to convey emotional information, leading to the central and contingent questions: (1) What is the emotional spectrum of natural language? and (2) Are natural languages neutrally, positively, or negatively biased? Here, we report that the human-perceived positivity of over 10,000 of the most frequently used English words exhibits a clear positive bias. More deeply, we characterize and quantify distributions of word positivity for four large and distinct corpora, demonstrating that their form is broadly invariant with respect to frequency of word use.Comment: Manuscript: 9 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures; Supplementary Information: 12 pages, 3 tables, 8 figure

Scale of Auditory Behaviors e testes auditivos comportamentais para avaliação do processamento auditivo em crianças falantes do português europeu

PURPOSE: The objective of this research was to assess the auditory abilities of Portuguese children and compare such abilities to the score of the Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB). METHODS: Fifty-one children were evaluated with audiometry, speech audiometry, acoustic immittance measures, and eight behavioral tests involving dichotic listening, monotic listening, temporal processing, and sound localization. Their parents filled in the SAB questionnaire adapted to European A. SAB scores and auditory tests scores were submitted to Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: There is significant correlation between the score on SAB questionnaire and the auditory processing tests. The greatest coefficient was observed in temporal processing test (p=0.000). CONCLUSION: There was correlation between the score of SAB and the performance in auditory processing tests, suggesting that the SAB may be used for auditory processing screening.OBJETIVO: Investigar as habilidades auditivas de crianças portuguesas e verificar se há correlação entre aquelas e o escore do Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB). MÉTODOS: Todas as crianças foram submetidas a audiometria tonal, logoaudiometria, medidas de imitância acústica e oito testes comportamentais do processamento auditivo, envolvendo tarefas de escuta dicótica, escuta monótica, processamento temporal e localização sonora. Os pais das 51 crianças portuguesas avaliadas preencheram o questionário SAB adaptado ao português europeu. Foram calculados os valores do coeficiente de correlação de Pearson entre os escores obtidos no questionário e os dos testes do processamento auditivo. RESULTADOS: Observou-se correlação significativa entre o escore do questionário e o dos testes comportamentais, tendo a maior sido observada nos testes relacionados ao processamento temporal (p=0,000). CONCLUSÃO: Houve correlação entre o escore da SAB e os resultados obtidos nos testes auditivos comportamentais em crianças portuguesas, sugerindo que este questionário pode ser utilizado em triagem do processamento auditivo.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, UM (FCT R&D 317

Two-neutron transfer reaction mechanisms in 12^{12}C(6^6He,4^{4}He)14^{14}C using a realistic three-body 6^{6}He model

The reaction mechanisms of the two-neutron transfer reaction $^{12}$C($^6$He,$^4$He) have been studied at 30 MeV at the TRIUMF ISAC-II facility using the SHARC charged-particle detector array. Optical potential parameters have been extracted from the analysis of the elastic scattering angular distribution. The new potential has been applied to the study of the transfer angular distribution to the 2$^+_2$ 8.32 MeV state in $^{14}$C, using a realistic 3-body $^6$He model and advanced shell model calculations for the carbon structure, allowing to calculate the relative contributions of the simultaneous and sequential two-neutron transfer. The reaction model provides a good description of the 30 MeV data set and shows that the simultaneous process is the dominant transfer mechanism. Sensitivity tests of optical potential parameters show that the final results can be considerably affected by the choice of optical potentials. A reanalysis of data measured previously at 18 MeV however, is not as well described by the same reaction model, suggesting that one needs to include higher order effects in the reaction mechanism.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Proteomic profile of KSR1-regulated signalling in response to genotoxic agents in breast cancer

Kinase suppressor of Ras 1 (KSR1) has been implicated in tumorigenesis in multiple cancers, including skin, pancreatic and lung carcinomas. However, our recent study revealed a role of KSR1 as a tumour suppressor in breast cancer, the expression of which is potentially correlated with chemotherapy response. Here, we aimed to further elucidate the KSR1-regulated signalling in response to genotoxic agents in breast cancer. Stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) was implemented to globally characterise cellular protein levels induced by KSR1 in the presence of doxorubicin or etoposide. The acquired proteomic signature was compared and GO-STRING analysis was subsequently performed to illustrate the activated functional signalling networks. Furthermore, the clinical associations of KSR1 with identified targets and their relevance in chemotherapy response were examined in breast cancer patients. We reveal a comprehensive repertoire of thousands of proteins identified in each dataset and compare the unique proteomic profiles as well as functional connections modulated by KSR1 after doxorubicin (Doxo-KSR1) or etoposide (Etop-KSR1) stimulus. From the up-regulated top hits, several proteins, including STAT1, ISG15 and TAP1 are also found to be positively associated with KSR1 expression in patient samples. Moreover, high KSR1 expression, as well as high abundance of these proteins, is correlated with better survival in breast cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy. In aggregate, our data exemplify a broad functional network conferred by KSR1 with genotoxic agents and highlight its implication in predicting chemotherapy response in breast cancer

Effect of base–acid properties of the mixtures of water with methanol on the solution enthalpy of selected cyclic ethers in this mixture at 298.15 K

The enthalpies of solution of cyclic ethers: 1,4- dioxane, 12-crown-4 and 18-crown-6 in the mixture of water and methanol have been measured within the whole mole fraction range at T = 298.15 K. Based on the obtained data, the effect of base–acid properties of water– methanol mixtures on the solution enthalpy of cyclic ethers in these mixtures has been analyzed. The solution enthalpy of cyclic ethers depends on acid properties of water– methanol mixtures in the range of high and medium water contents in the mixture. Based on the analysis performed, it can be assumed that in the mixtures of high methanol contents, cyclic ethe