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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been declared as a pandemic in 2019-2020. Most cases are usually self-limited;however, it may unpredictably progress to severe form with high mortality rate. Objectives: To highlight the role of measuring serum procalcitonin (PCT) and receiving early prophylactic antibiotic therapy in terms of their relation to the mortality rate in hospitalized critical COVID-19 patients. Methods: this study analyzed sixty COVID-19 critical patients admitted to Tanta University Isolation Hospital from June to November, 2020. Respiratory tract and blood samples were collected Results: Our results showed that the mean serum PCT levels were significantly higher in deceased patients (15%) than in those who could survive corona-virus infection. Patients who received early prophylactic antibiotic therapy showed significant better survival rate than those who didn't. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that measuring PCT shows statically significant results with COVID-19 patients' outcome more than other commonly used laboratory markers such as CRP. Moreover, early administration of prophylactic antibiotic therapy in COVID-19 patients, especially critical ones, is crucial even in those with negative PCT values. © 2020 The author (s). Published by Zagazig University.
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Objective: To determine the frequency of post-operative pulmonary complications after (coronary artery bypass grafting) CABG surgery and to compare the respiratory complications of post COVID and comparison group Study Design: Analytical Cross-sectional study Study Place and Duration: Study was conducted in Adult Intensive Care Unit, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Sep 2021 to Mar 2022. Methodology: 40 patients were selected, and divided into two groups using non-Probability consecutive sampling. Group-A had history of COVID-19 infection and Group-B was a comparison group and had no history of COVID-19 infection. Patients presenting for elective On-Pump (coronary artery bypass grafting) CABG surgery and known history of COVID-19 were included in our study. Patients of age ranging 30 to 70 years irrespective of gender were included in the study. Any patient who had cardiopulmonary bypass time of more than 120 min, respiratory illness like asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), history of smoking, or requiring post-operative re-ventilation due to cardiac or neurological complication, were excluded from the study. After patients were received from Operation theatre, they were monitored for the respiratory complications and both groups were compared. Results: A total of 40 patients were included in this study having mean age 57.9±7.62 years. Most of the patient population was male 31(77.5%) and only 09(22.5%) were female patients. Study population was equally divided into two groups i.e., 20(50%) in comparison group and 20(50%) in post COVID-19 group. There was no significant difference in age (p=0.714), ventilation time (p=0.068), gender (p=1.000), and re-ventilation (p=0.451) of both groups. While Intensive Care Unit stay (p=<0.0001) and non-invasive ventilation (NIV) were found to be significant (p=0.007). © 2022, Army Medical College. All rights reserved.
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Objective: To detect residual RV dysfunction on a right ventricle focused Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE) in COVID-19 infection survivors with lung involvement. Study Design: Analytical cross-sectional study design. Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad Pakistan, from Feb 2022 to Apr 2022. Methodology: A total of 87 patients who had suffered from and survived COVID-19 infection with definite involvement on CT scans of the chest were studied after discharge. Echocardiography was done to determine the RV anatomical and functional para-meters to determine the relationship between extent of lung involvement and transthoracic echocardiographic parameters. Data was entered in Microsoft excel and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Results: The initial sample size was of 87 patients. Due to suboptimal ECHO studies 7 cases were excluded. Males represented 62.5% (n=50) and females 37.5% (n=30). The ages ranged from 27 to 80 years, mean 53.08±12.77 years. Based on the CT severity score severe infections were 61.3 %(n=49) and mild 38.8% (n=31). The CTSS ranged from 6 to 30 with a mean of (17.74±7.13). In our study we found that on TTE, there was a statistically significant difference in 2 of the anatomical parameters;RVOT PLAX (RVOT diameter in Parasternal long axis view) [27.4 vs 28.3;p=0.02], RVOT-Dis (Distal RVOT dia) [22.8 vs 24;p=0.01]. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference in all the functional parameters of RV function TDI S vel (Systolic Tissue Doppler Velocity of the Tricuspid Annulus by Tissue doppler imaging) [7 vs4.9;p<0.0001], RIMP-PW (Right Ventricular Index of Myocardial Performance by Pulse wave doppler) [0.46 vs0.38;p<0.0001], RIMP-TDI (Right Ventricular Index of Myocardial Performance by Tissue doppler imaging) [0.57 vs 0.48;p<0.0001]. RV-FAC (RV-Fractional Area Change) was statistically insignificant. [42.8% vs 43.2%;p=0.6]. Conclusion: Our study showed that in patients with definite lung involvement on chest CT scans, functional echocardio-graphic parameters of Right ventricular function were affected in line with the severity of lung involvement. © 2022, Army Medical College. All rights reserved.
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Objective: To determine the clinical course and outcome of hospitalized pregnant patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection Study Design: Prospective longitudinal study Place and Duration of Study: Obstetrics Units of Pak Emirates Military Hospital and Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from May to Jun 2020. Methodology: All patients reporting for childbirth were tested for SARS-CoV-2, and those testing positive were included. The primary outcome was virus clearance time and categorization according to the severity of the disease into asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe and critical. Furthermore, a comparison was made between the presence of comorbid conditions and symptoms in the category of COVID-19. In addition, neonatal sample evaluation for SARS-CoV-2 was done. Results: Out of the 881 women giving birth, 41(4.6%) tested positive for SARS Cov-2. Majority were asymptomatic 28(68.3%) followed by mild 8(19.5%), moderate 4(9.8%) and severe 1(2.4%) category. There was a significant association of the COVID categories with symptoms (p-value<0.005) and comorbid condition (p-value<0.001). The mean virus clearance time was 8.20±1.66 days. During hospital stay 34(82.9%) delivered. All 34(100%) delivered babies had no evidence of vertical transmission. Conclusion: Pregnant women with COVID-19 infection have a nearly similar clinical course to non-COVID women in this study. There is also no evidence of vertical transmission to the neonate. © 2022, Army Medical College. All rights reserved.
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This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of physicians toward telemedicine, examine the readiness of organizational aspects of telemedicine application, and investigate the knowledge and attitude of physicians toward telemedicine relative advantage moderated by organizational aspects during infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. A cross-sectional descriptive analytical study was done using a validated questionnaire distributed to a purposive sample of 320 Jordanian physicians. Structural equation modeling was done using AMOS 22.0. Results supported a claim of good fit of the structural model and revealed a positive and significant effect of both knowledge and attitude on relative advantage of telemedicine. Moreover, there was a significant impact of organizational aspects as a moderator of the relation between knowledge and attitude and the relative advantages of telemedicine. These results contributed to existing literature and are beneficial to policy makers and practitioners at the healthcare sectors. © 2022, Association Res Militaris. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to un-precedented rates of unemployment and greater uncertainty in the job market. There is a growing need for data-driven tools and analyses to better inform the public on trends within the job market. In particular, obtaining a 'snapshot' of available employment opportunities mid-pandemic promises insights to inform policy and support retraining programs. In this work, we combine data scraped from the Canadian Job Bank and Numbeo globally crowd-sourced repository to explore the relationship between job postings during a global pandemic and Key Performance Indicators (e.g. quality of life [QOL] index, cost of living) for major cities across Canada. This analysis aims to help Canadians make informed career decisions, collect a 'snapshot' of the Canadian employment opportunities amid a pandemic, and inform job seekers in identifying the correct fit between the desired lifestyle of a city and their career. We collected a new high-quality dataset of job postings from jobbank.gc.ca obtained with the use of ethical web scraping and performed exploratory data analysis on this dataset to identify job opportunity trends. When optimizing for average salary of job openings with QOL, affordability, cost of living, and traffic indices, it was found that Edmonton, AB consistently scores higher than the mean, and is therefore an attractive place to move. Furthermore, we identified optimal provinces to relocate to with respect to individual skill levels. It was determined that Ajax, Marathon, and Chapleau, ON are each attractive cities for IT professionals, construction workers, and healthcare workers respectively when maximizing average salary. Finally, we publicly release our scraped dataset as a mid-pandemic snapshot of Canadian employment opportunities and present a public web application that provides an interactive visual interface that summarizes our findings for the general public and the broader research community. © 2022 IEEE.
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The interaction of electromagnetic (EM) waves with the COVID-19 virus is studied to define the frequencies that cause maximum energy absorption by the virus and the power level needed to cause a lethal temperature rise. The full-wave EM simulator is used to model the virus and study the effects of its size and dielectric properties on the absorbed power across a wide range of frequencies. The results confirm potential resonance conditions, where specific frequencies produce maximum absorption and subsequent temperature rise that can destroy the virus. Furthermore, the study confirms that maximum power deposition in the virus occurs at specific wavelengths depending on its size. Also, the simulation is used to find the power required to destroy the virus and determine the total power required to destroy it in an oral activity, such as coughing, made by infected individuals. Furthermore, the study explained why irradiation by UV-C band is effective to decrease virus activity or even eradicate it.
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Bignoniaceae plants are multipurpose herbal remedies with privileged chemical and biological profiles;nevertheless, some members in this family, e.g. Amphilophium species, have been scarcely investigated. Therefore, this work explores the chemical complexity of the underexplored species, Amphilophium paniculatum (L.) Kunth as a potential source of inhibitory phytochemicals against the recently emerging coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Overall, 13 structurally varied metabolites were isolated from the ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions of A. paniculatum leaves for the first time in the genus and identified by different spectral techniques, including H-1 and C-13 NMR, DEPT, and HR-ESI-MS analyses. The characterized compounds (1-13), along with those previously obtained by our group from the same species (14-22) revealed varying binding affinities to the active site of SARS-CoV-2 M-pro, among which, eight molecules exhibited lower binding energies (-9.54 to -7.45 kcal/mol) than the ligand N3 (-7.44 kcal/mol);with polyphenolic metabolites, namely flavonoids, phenylethanoids, and lignans had the most stable interactions, respectively. These results highlighted the noteworthy diversity of A. paniculatum metabolites and their marked homogeneity with those produced by other Bignoniaceae plants, which would help expand our phytochemical and chemotaxonomic knowledge on this species. Coupling such phytochemical data with molecular docking studies could also allow a time- and cost-effective search for potential anti-COVID-19 agents. (C) 2021 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.