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Objective To analyze the efficacy and safety of Liushen Pill combined with basic treatment on patients with COVID-19.Methods One-hundred-eighty-one patients hospitalized with COVID-19, classified as asymptomatic, mild type, were randomly separated into the experimental (n=91) and control (n=90) groups. The control group was given placebo (Maizao decoction), while the experimental group was given Maizao decoction and Liushen pill, in addition to standard care. The negative conversion rate of nucleic acid (Day 7), hospital discharge rate (Day 8, 10, 14), symptom disappearance rate (Day 3, 5, 7), inflammatory cytokines and adverse events between the two groups were compared. Results The negative viral conversion rate in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group (48.35% vs 31.11%, P＜0.05). Subgroup analysis showed a similar significant trend when the Ct value was ≤ 30 at baseline. After 10 days, the hospital discharge rate was significantly higher in the experimental than the control group (69.23% vs 53.33%, P＜0.05). After 3 days of medication, the headache symptoms significantly disappeared in the experimental group (88.57%) compared to the control group (63.33%) (P＜0.05). After 5 days, symptom disappearance rate of headache in the experimental group (97.14%) was still significantly higher than that in the control group (80.00%) (P＜0.05), as was the symptom disappearance rate of cough (82.65% vs 58.93%, P＜0.01). After treatment, the PCT level was significantly lower in the experimental than the control group (0.09±0.00 ng/L vs 0.14±0.05 ng/L) (P＜0.05). There were no significant between-groups differences in clinical safety test indexes.Conclusion Early intervention with Liushen Pill could improve the symptoms of cough and headache, and increase negative viral conversion and discharge rate.Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, No. ChiCTR2200058859. Registered on April 18, 2022. https://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=166975&htm=4
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COVID-19ABSTRACT
Decontaminating N95 respirators for reuse could mitigate shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. We tested a portable UV-C light-emitting diode disinfection chamber and found that decontamination efficacy depends on mask model, material and location on the mask. This emphasizes the need for caution when interpreting efficacy data of UV-C decontamination methods.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Background: The mental status of patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (PCs), health care workers (HCWs) exposed to the COVID-19, and general population (GP) has be reported. However, no studies comprehensively investigated their mental status. Thus, this study investigated the prevalence, comparisons and risk factors of mental problems among three groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: 1300 participants including 137 PCs, 159 HCWs and 1003 GP were enrolled. The anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress symptom (PTSS) were assessed by the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C). Findings: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of anxiety, depression and PTSS were 21.7%, 76.1% and 19.5% in PCs, 9.3%, 25.3% and 9.5% in HCWs, and 12.7%, 25.8% and 6.9% in GP, respectively. The SAS, SDS and PCL-C total scores differed among three groups after controlling for covariates (all, p<0.01). The SAS, SDS and PCL-C total scores were significantly higher in PCs than HCWs and GP (all, p<0.01). Moreover, the distribution of age grouped differed between HCWs with and without depression (p<0.05). The frequency of having friend or relative infected was higher in PCs with than without PTSS as well as the higher married frequency in GP with than without PTSS (both, p<0.01). Further analyses showed the correlation of having friend or relative infected with PCL-C total score in PCs (p=0.004, OR=4.36, 95%CI: 1.60-11.91), the association of age 30-40 years with SDS total score in HCWs (p=0.014, OR=0.35, 95%CI: 0.16-0.81) and the relationship between married and PCL-C total score in GP (p=0.004, OR=3.89, 95%CI: 1.59-9.52). Interpretation: Our data revealed the high prevalence of mental problems among PCs, HCWs and GP, and more serious mental problems in PCs than HCWs and GP as well as the significant effects of having friend or relative infected, married and age 30-40 years on mental problems in the different population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, these findings further suggested that mental problems in the different population should adopt the different psychological interventions to reduce their mental distress caused by the COVID-19.Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81771439), Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (BE2018662), Jiangsu Provincial Health Commission Science Research Program (QNRC2016228, H2019056 and LGY2018010), Jiangsu Provincial Six Talent Peaks Project (WSN-165), Suzhou Municipal Sci-Tech Bureau Program (SS2019009), and CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology (KLMH2019K03).Declaration of Interests: The authors declared no conflict of interest.Ethics Approval Statement: The protocol, questionnaire and informed consent of this study were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University.
Subject(s)
Anxiety Disorders , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic , Virus Diseases , Fetal Distress , Intellectual Disability , COVID-19ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Osteosarcoma is rare disease and there is a strong controversy about the potential impact of symptom interval on the stage of disease and patients'outcomes. We want to assess whether increased symptom interval (SI) is associated with advanced tumor stage and poor prognosis for patients with osteosarcoma. METHODS: We analyzed prospectively collected data of 220 patients younger than 40 years who had osteosarcoma around the knee. Symptom interval was analyzed to evaluate its impact on metastases at diagnosis, tumor volume, chemotherapy response and overall survival. RESULTS: The median of SI was 64.5 (Q1-Q3: 42-88) days. The 5-year overall survival rate for patients with different length of symptom interval (<42 days, 42-64 days, 65-87 days, >= 88 days) were 0.78 (95 %CI: 0.67-0.89), 0.49 (95 %CI: 0.35-0.63), 0.52 (95 %CI:0.39-0.65), and 0.65 (95 %CI:0.53-0.77) respectively(p = 0.013). Nonparametric test showed increased SI was associated with metastases at diagnosis (p = 0.008), but not associated with large tumor volume or poor chemotherapy response. Cox regression mode test showed that patient with increased SI had higher hazard ratio (42-64 days HR: 2.586 (95 %CI:1.360-4.915);65-87 days, HR: 2.225 (95 %CI:1.170-4.233)) for poor outcomes compared to short SI (<42 days), though it was not significant in multivariate analysis (p = 0.182). CONCLUSION: Increased SI but not the longest SI is associated with higher incidence of metastases at diagnosis;patients can benefit from an earlier diagnosis in terms of survival.
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Objective: To study the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in one designated medical institutions in Chengdu. Methods: 20 patients admitted to one hospital in designated medical institutions in Chengdu with laboratory confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection. Data were collected from 26 January 2020 to 1 March 2020. Clinical data were collected using Self-constructed questionnaire refer to World health organization nCoV CASE RECORDFORM Version 1.2 28JAN2020. If information was not clear, The team will review the original data from the designated computer. Results: Of the 20 COVID-19 infected patients studied (median age 42.5 years), 4 patients became severe sick and one was critical deteriorated in the process of treatment, they were later transferred to the superior medical institutions for treatment. This patient died after admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The other two mild patients remained positive for pharyngeal swabs of SARS-Cov-2 more than 3 weeks, so they were quarantined in a medical facility without medication. All studied cases were infected by human to human transmission without taking protective measures. It requires further confirmation of transmission through contact within families. The most common symptoms at onset of illness were fever in 13 (65%) patients, cough in 9 (45%), headache in 3 (15%), fatigue in 6 (30%), diarrhoea in 3 (15%), and Abdominal pain in 2 (10%). Six patients (30%) developed shortness of breath on admission. The median time from exposure to onset of illness was 6.5 days (interquartile range 3.25-9 days), and from the onset of symptoms to first hospital admission was 3.5(1.25-7) days. Conclusion: Up to the end of February 2020, compared with patients initially infected with SARS-Cov-2 in Wuhan, the symptoms of patients in this study was relatively mild and the patients are easily cured and discharged from hospital. the patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19 is general type of patients infected with SARS-Cov-2 in China. However, The COVID-19 is a self-limiting disease with no effective drug to treat it, it is important to detect and identify severe cases from mild cases early.