Interest of the therapeutic education in patients with type 2 diabetes observing the fast of Ramadan

AbstractThe fast of Ramadan is a dilemma for diabetic patients due to the complexity of the management of diabetes during this holy month and the multiple risks they face (hypoglycemia, etc.).ObjectivesEvaluate the impact of a structured protocol of therapeutic education in a sample of type 2 diabetes, who were authorized by their doctors to fast, on metabolic and anthropometric profiles.MethodsThis prospective study was conducted among 54 type 2 diabetic patients (28 men and 26 women) aged 36–65years, recruited from National Nutrition Institute. Patients were divided into two groups: the first group (n=26) received an education session one to two weeks before the month of Ramadan; the second group (n=28) did not have appropriate therapeutic education except therapeutic adjustments. All our diabetic patients benefited from anthropometric measurements, determination of body composition and metabolic assessment (HbA1c, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.) before and after the month of Ramadan.ResultsThe fast was completed without complications in 25 diabetic patients educated group and 22 control patients.We found that weight loss was greater among educated diabetic patients (−1.05kg) than in controls (−0.58kg), but without statistical significance. Body composition has not undergone significant changes in both diabetic groups.Therapeutic education has led to a decline of 0.27% in HbA1c in the educated group while glycemic control in diabetic patients uneducated remained stable. Furthermore, we observed a better lipid profile in diabetic patients educated than those who did not have education.ConclusionOur results justify the interest of patient education centered on the month of Ramadan in all type 2 diabetic patients observing the fast of the holy month. This education should be continued during Ramadan in order to fulfill this religious rite safely

Nutritional risk factors for postmenopausal osteoporosis

Background: Osteoporosis is a bone disease that combines both a decrease in bone density and its internal architecture changes. Nutrition is one of the major determinants of osteoporosis.Aim: The purpose of our study was to identify nutritional risk factors of osteoporosis of two groups of osteoporotic women and witnesses.Methods: We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study including 60 postmenopausal women and screening for osteoporosis by a bone densitometry, recruited the outpatient service of Rheumatology of the Institute KASSAB.Results: We have identified excessive supply of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in the osteoporotic compared with controls (13.27% vs 10.23%, p= 0.002) and an inadequate intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (12.6% vs 16.16%, p=0.012).A low calcium intake is another factor of risk of osteoporosis (574.27 ± 336.9 mg/day vs 782.45 ± 340.54 mg/day; p= 0.021). This is explained by the low consumption of milk and milk products objectified in the osteoporotic group (p= 0.001). We also found a negative relationship between inadequate intakes of potassium and osteoporosis (2241.55 ±1049.85 mg/day vs 2988.17 ± 1146.52 mg/day; p= 0.011). This may be due to the low consumption in fruit and vegetables, sources of potassium, found in the osteoporotic group (p= 0.003).We found a significant increase in the consumption of the VVPO group in the osteoporotic toward women witness (2.23 ± 0.99 number of times/day vs 1.67 ± 0.76 number of times/day; p= 0.019). A high consumption of coffee appears also as a risk factor since the osteoporotic group consume almost twice than controls (p= 0.002).Conclusion: Nutritional risk factors of osteoporosis are all the most important that they are editable and can take their place in a prevention of public health policy.Keywords: Osteoporosis; Menopause; Risk factors; Nutritio

Synthesis and proton conductive properties of novel sulfonated (sulfone-triazoles) copolymers

International audienceA new bisphenol containing 1,2,3-triazole ring (BPT) was synthetized using the click reaction and copolymerized with diammonium salt of 4,4'-difluorodiphenylsulfone-3,3'-disulfonic acid (DFPSS) and 4,4'-difluorodiphenylsulfone (DFPS) to prepare new copper free sulfonated sulfone-(1,2,3-triazole) copolymers (SSTP) for use as a proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Four copolymers with different ion exchange capacity (IEC) in the range of 1 to 1.6 meqH+/g were obtained by varying the molar ratio of the 3 monomers. The structure of SSTP was confirmed by NMR. They are soluble in polar aprotic solvents such as NMP, DMF and DMSO and show good thermal properties. Membranes from three of these SSTPs were prepared using the solution casting method and characterized in order to determine their water uptake (WU) and their ionic conductivity at 80°C

Humoral and Cellular Immunogenicity of Six Different Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in Adults: A Comparative Study in Tunisia (North Africa)

Background: The mass vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 was started in Tunisia on 13 March 2021 by using progressively seven different vaccines approved for emergency use. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the humoral and cellular immunity in subjects aged 40 years and over who received one of the following two-dose regimen vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, namely mRNA-1273 or Spikevax (Moderna), BNT162B2 or Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech), Gam-COVID-Vac or Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute), ChAdOx1-S or Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca), BIBP (Sinopharm), and Coronavac (Sinovac). Material and methods: For each type of vaccine, a sample of subjects aged 40 and over was randomly selected from the national platform for monitoring COVID-19 vaccination and contacted to participate to this study. All consenting participants were sampled for peripheral blood at 3–7 weeks after the second vaccine dose to perform anti-S and anti-N serology by the Elecsys® (Lenexa, KS, USA) anti-SARS-CoV-2 assays (Roche® Basel, Switzerland). The CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were evaluated by the QuantiFERON® SARS-CoV-2 (Qiagen® Basel, Switzerland) for a randomly selected sub-group. Results: A total of 501 people consented to the study and, of them, 133 were included for the cellular response investigations. Both humoral and cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 antigens differed significantly between all tested groups. RNA vaccines induced the highest levels of humoral and cellular anti-S responses followed by adenovirus vaccines and then by inactivated vaccines. Vaccines from the same platform induced similar levels of specific anti-S immune responses except in the case of the Sputnik V and the AstraZeneca vaccine, which exhibited contrasting effects on humoral and cellular responses. When analyses were performed in subjects with negative anti-N antibodies, results were similar to those obtained within the total cohort, except for the Moderna vaccine, which gave a better cellular immune response than the Pfizer vaccine and RNA vaccines, which induced similar cellular immune responses to those of adenovirus vaccines. Conclusion: Collectively, our data confirmed the superiority of the RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, in particular that of Moderna, for both humoral and cellular immunogenicity. Our results comparing between different vaccine platforms in a similar population are of great importance since they may help decision makers to adopt the best strategy for further national vaccination programs