Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of COVID-19: The PAN-COVID study

Objective To assess perinatal outcomes for pregnancies affected by suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods Prospective, web-based registry. Pregnant women were invited to participate if they had suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between 1st January 2020 and 31st March 2021 to assess the impact of infection on maternal and perinatal outcomes including miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal growth restriction, pre-term birth and transmission to the infant. Results Between April 2020 and March 2021, the study recruited 8239 participants who had suspected or confirmed SARs-CoV-2 infection episodes in pregnancy between January 2020 and March 2021. Maternal death affected 14/8197 (0.2%) participants, 176/8187 (2.2%) of participants required ventilatory support. Pre-eclampsia affected 389/8189 (4.8%) participants, eclampsia was reported in 40/ 8024 (0.5%) of all participants. Stillbirth affected 35/8187 (0.4 %) participants. In participants delivering within 2 weeks of delivery 21/2686 (0.8 %) were affected by stillbirth compared with 8/4596 (0.2 %) delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection (95 % CI 0.3–1.0). SGA affected 744/7696 (9.3 %) of livebirths, FGR affected 360/8175 (4.4 %) of all pregnancies. Pre-term birth occurred in 922/8066 (11.5%), the majority of these were indicated pre-term births, 220/7987 (2.8%) participants experienced spontaneous pre-term births. Early neonatal deaths affected 11/8050 livebirths. Of all neonates, 80/7993 (1.0%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions Infection was associated with indicated pre-term birth, most commonly for fetal compromise. The overall proportions of women affected by SGA and FGR were not higher than expected, however there was the proportion affected by stillbirth in participants delivering within 2 weeks of infection was significantly higher than those delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection. We suggest that clinicians’ threshold for delivery should be low if there are concerns with fetal movements or fetal heart rate monitoring in the time around infection

Micrografting for fruit crop improvement

Micrografting is an in vitro grafting technique which involves the placement of a meristem or shoot tip explant onto a decapitated rootstock that has been grown aseptically from seed or micropropagated cultures. Following early experiments of micrografting in ivy and chrysanthemum, the technique has been used in woody species, especially fruit trees. Major work was carried out in different Citrus species for the elimination of various viral diseases. In vitro micrografting has been used for improvement and multiplication of fruit trees as the technique has potential to combine the advantages of rapid in vitro multiplication with the increased productivity that results from grafting superior rootstock and scion combinations. Successful micrografting protocols have been developed for various fruit crops including almond, apple, cherry, chestnut, Citrus, grapes, mulberry, olive, peach, pear, pistacio, walnut, etc. Special techniques have been used for increasing the percentage of successful micrografts with the use of growth regulators, etiolation treatments, antioxidants, higher sucrose levels, silicon tubes, etc. The technique has great potential for improvement and large scale multiplication of fruit plants. It has been used on commercial scale for production of virus-free plants in fruit crops and viroid free plants in Citrus. Micrografting has also been used in prediction of incompatibility between the grafting­ partners, histological studies, disease indexing, production of disease-free plants particularly resistant to soil borne pathogens and multiplication of difficult to root plants.Keywords: Fruit crops, graft incompatibility, crop improvement, micrografting, propagation, shoot tip graftingAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(25) 2474-248

Synthesis, characterization, and optoelectronic properties of phenothiazine-based organic co-poly-ynes

202209_bcwwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersBritish Petroleum, Oman; Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI), Oman; Deputy for Research & Innovation, Deputy for Research & Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Ms Clarea Au for the Endowed Professorship (847S) and the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry; Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences; UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship; Presidential Fellowship from the University of Manchester, UK; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (UK)Publishe

Effect of amlodipine and lisinopril on microalbuminuria in patients with essential hypertension: A prospective study

Microalbuminuria can be present in 25–100% of patients with essential hypertension and is associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular events. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of a commonly used calcium channel blocker, amlodipine, and an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, lisinopril on urinary albumin excretion in patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension. We screened 324 patients with essential hypertension for microalbuminuria and documented it in 120 patients. These 120 patients with microalbuminuria were randomly divided into two groups of 60 each, matched for age, sex, arterial pressure, creatinine clearance, and urinary albumin excretion so as to receive amlodipine or lisinopril. We prospectively measured their urinary albumin excretion and creatinine clearance prior to treatment and, four and eight weeks after treatment with amlodipine or lisinopril. Mean arterial pressure (mean ± SD) at baseline, after four weeks, and after eight weeks was 113.01 ± 4.38,104.93 ± 3.12, and 98.89 ± 1.75 mmHg (P < 0.0000); and 114.13 ± 7.11, 106.52 ± 3.50, and 100.89 ± 2.80 mmHg (P < 0.0000) in amlodipine and lisinopril groups, respectively. Urinary albumin excretion (mean ± SEM) at baseline, after four, and after eight weeks was 79.30 ± 3.74, 62.03 ± 3.61, and 52.02 ± 3.05 (P < 0.0000); and 73.96 ± 4.10, 72.39 ± 3.74, 66.12 ± 3.94 (P = 0.1742) in lisinopril and amlodipine groups, respectively. Lisinopril but not amlodipine, reduced the urinary albumin excretion significantly despite their similar antihypertensive efficacy. The clinical and prognostic significance of these observations need to be established

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease