Prevalence of impaired upper extremity neural mobility among smart device users during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Both the development of various countries and people's health were impacted by the unforeseen global COVID-19 outbreak. Many countries prefer to do their daily business online. Although it was incredibly useful at the time, it still had a problem that was not properly addressed, especially among the student population. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of upper extremity neural mobility among students who were using smart devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: 458 students who had previously taken home-based online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic and used a smart device for more than six hours were included in this study. The study was conducted in three phases. After being examined in the first two stages of the study, a total of 72 people were chosen for the final phase. Peripheral nerve mobility tests were performed on these 72 subjects. RESULTS: This study observed that 15.72% of smart device users have been affected by forward neck posture and impaired peripheral nerve mobility in the cervical spine. CONCLUSION: The study concludes that forward neck posture is associated with impaired peripheral nerve mobility among smart device users who were in home-based online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Hence, we suggest an appropriate treatment strategy focusing on preventing the forward neck posture through timely analysis and self-care therapies.

Outcomes of Extremely Prolonged (> 50 Days) Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support: A Single Center Experience

The COVID-19 pandemic drove a sustained increase in the volume and duration of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO), accelerating a decade long trend. While current clinical consensus recommends a maximal support duration of 14-21 days, the observed change in practice may warrant revisiting this notion. To guide this, we describe our institution's experience with prolonged VV-ECMO support. We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of patients who received VV-ECMO support at a large academic medical center between 2018-2022 using medical records. This study is a descriptive report of patients who received prolonged VV-ECMO support, defined as >50 continuous days on circuit. Of the 130 patients who received VV-ECMO during the study period, 12 (9.2%) had a support duration of >50 days, 11 of whom suffered from adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19, while 1 patient with prior bilateral lung transplant suffered from ARDS secondary to bacterial pneumonia. The median duration of VV-ECMO support was 94 days [IQR: 69.5, 128], with a maximum support of 180 days. Median time from intubation to cannulation was 5 days [IQR: 2, 14]. On-circuit mobilization was performed in 9 patients (75%). Successful weaning of VV-ECMO support occurred in 8 patients (67%), with 6 (50%) bridged to lung transplantation and 2 (17%) bridged to recovery. A total of 7 patients (58%) were discharged from the hospital: 3 to home and 4 to a rehabilitation center. ECMO complications included cannulation site bleeding in 10 patients (83%), gastrointestinal bleeding in 4 patients (33%), oxygenator failure in 7 patients (58%), and required circuit exchanges in 9 patients (75%) (Figure 1). Extremely prolonged VV-ECMO support allows for successful recovery or optimization of lung transplant candidacy in a select group of patients at a high-volume institution, further supporting the expanded utilization of VV-ECMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Heart & Lung Transplantation is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Improving work life balance among female educationists during the COVID-19 lockdown.

BACKGROUND: The entire education industry switched from offline to online modes as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Numerous teachers who were diagnosed with musculoskeletal, psychological, and other neurodegenerative diseases have reported increased exhaustion, lack of sleep, a decline in quality of life (QoL), a decrease in physical activity, and excessive stress from online classes during the COVID-19 lockdown, especially women. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of three-modal exercise on fatigue, sleep, QoL as well as to determine the relationship between age, disease severity, disease stage and working years with women diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 44 female educators in stages I-II with PD who were between the ages of 40 and 60 volunteered. For a total of 36 sessions over the course of six weeks, Group A received a three-modal fitness program through online video sessions, whereas Group B received Nordic walking. The outcome measures included the Fatigue Severity Scale, Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale, and Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire-39. RESULTS: Age, Hoehn and Yahr scale, working years, and PD in years did not correlate with each other (p > 0.50). The three-modal exercise experimental Group A showed statistically significant improvement in QoL (p 0.001), sleep (p 0.001), and fatigue (p 0.001). CONCLUSION: Women in the field of education who participated in a three-modal exercise programme for PD reported a significant improvement in their level of exhaustion, sleep patterns, and quality of life.

Pelvic floor dysfunction and its impact on quality of life among female health care employees.

BACKGROUND: In today's fast-paced world, both men and women have to be equally competent to handle their responsibilities in order to look after their family members and children. In this pace of competency women tend to forget to take care of their own health and face many health issues, including pelvic floor dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyse the prevalence rate of pelvic floor dysfunction among the working women in regards to their age and body mass index as well as their quality of life. METHODS: One hundred sixty one post-partum working female participants from the medical fraternity were involved in this study after their consent was obtained. Pelvic floor muscle strength was assessed and their quality of life measured using King's health questionnaire. RESULTS: There was a strong correlation between the pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and its impact on the quality of life among the females with increasing age. Significant statistical significant difference of P(<0.0001) was noted. CONCLUSION: Pelvic floor dysfunction among females has a direct impact on their quality of life.

Prevalence of Agoraphobia In Post Neurological Illness Patients During Covid-19

Objective: Agoraphobia is generally been defined as a fear of appearing in public places, particularly the places which are too empty or too crowded. In many situations this anxiety leads these people to avoid certain situation or requires a accompany when he travelling outside the home or staying alone in home. Agoraphobia can be observed in any gender of any age group. Method(s): Patients with neurological illness who came to the outpatient department and inpatients from Saveetha Medical College and Hospital were included in the study, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the patients were explained about the study and their informed consent was obtained. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical committee. The participants were given the Agoraphobia Scale (AS) and their responses were documented by the therapist. The outcome measure was statistically analysed. Finding(s): The interpretations of Agoraphobic Scale (AS) reveals that there is an increased incidence of agoraphobia among the age group 38 to 48 years. It is also observed that female neurologically ill patients have increased incidence of agoraphobia compared to male neurologically ill patients. Incidence of agoraphobia in male neurologically ill patients is noted between 48 to 58 years. Conclusion(s): It is concluded that agoraphobia is prevalent in neurologically ill patients during covid-19 pandemic affecting their psycho-social behaviour and their ability. Copyright © 2022 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of physiotherapy management on burnout syndrome amongst IT professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive stress. Burnout weakens the energy of an individual which reduces productivity and leaves this individual helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Thus, an early diagnosis of this syndrome has to be done and ways to prevent the level of progression and complication of burnout syndrome has to be planned. OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of self-supervised Jacobson's relaxation technique along with Bhastrika Pranayama in reducing the level of burnout among the work-from-home IT professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: Thirty participants with burnout syndrome were randomly divided into two groups (15 participants in each group) using random allocation. The experimental group received Jacobson's relaxation technique along with Bhastrika Pranayama, whereas the control group received diaphragmatic breathing exercises and chest expansion exercises. Pre-test and post-test values using Maslach Burnout Inventory were used to interpret the results. RESULTS: Data collected were analyzed statistically by the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. It shows that there is a significant reduction in the level of burnout in the experimental group when compared to the control group at a p-value of 0.001. CONCLUSION: From the results, it is concluded that Jacobson's relaxation technique along with diaphragmatic breathing exercises showed significant improvement in the reduction of burnout levels.

Transfer Learning based on Covid-19 Classification using CT Scan Image

Initially, the coronavirus infection has been diagnosed by using the Chest CT scan and x-ray images of the patients. An accurate representation of the victim's respiratory system allows the medical practitioners to detect the covid-19 infection. The first step of the proposed approach is to preprocess the image in order to eliminate any undesirable noise that may be present in medical images. Following that, the intended features are retrieved from a processed image. Finally, Transfer Learning is used to categorize the data. The CT scan based representations are separated by using a U-net simulation, and the split representation is then used to train and analyze the data by using the v3 simulator, which helps to differentiate the coronavirus infection and pneumonia infection and securely protect the resulting documents. © 2022 IEEE.

Prevalence of burnout syndrome among Work-From-Home IT professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Many countries adopted a complete or partial lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and various professions started to work-from-home. People who work-from-home experience constant stress which leads to burnout syndrome. Burnout can be defined as a chronic stress-induced occupational syndrome resulting in fatigue, decreased job productivity, and poor motivation towards the job. OBJECTIVE: This research work primarily focuses on exploring the prevalence of burnout syndrome among IT professionals who work-from-home and to determine the impact of burnout in different gender and age-groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Using snowball sampling method 934 IT professionals were selected based on selection criteria, explained about the study processes, and instructed to submit an online survey consist of Maslach Burnout Inventory scale (MBI) through mail, social media, or through a researcher by direct interview. RESULTS: Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data. In 25-30 years age-group, men were affected (93%) less than women (94%) and also in 31-35 years age-group, men were affected (96%) less than women (98%). Overall burnout scores of men were 94% and women were 96%. Results indicate female IT professionals were more prone experience burnout syndrome than Male population. CONCLUSIONS: From the results, it is concluded that 95% of the IT professionals are suffering from burnout, where women are more prevalent to burnout when compared to male. It is also suggested that an early, routine and frequent assessment of physical status, mental status and burnout syndrome is essential to maintain mental health.

S Gene Target Failure (SGTF) in Commercial Multiplex RT-PCR assay as indicator to detect SARS-CoV-2 VOC B.1.1.7 lineage in Tamil Nadu, India (preprint)

Emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) Variants of Concern (VOC) possessing improved virulence, transmissibility and/or immune-escape capabilities has raised significant public health concerns. In order to identify VOCs, WHO recommends Whole-Genome Sequencing approach, which is costly and involves longer completion time. Hence, potential role of commercial multiplex RT-PCR kit to screen variants rapidly is being attempted in this study. A total of 1200 suspected COVID samples from different districts of Tamil Nadu State (India) were screened with Thermo TaqPath RT-PCR kit and Altona Realstar RT-PCR Assay kit. Among 1200 screened, S-gene target failure (SGTF) phenomenon were identified in 112 samples while testing with TaqPath RT-PCR Kit. 100% concordant results were observed between SGTF phenomenon and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) results in detecting SARS-CoV-2 VOC B.1.1.7. TaqPath RT-PCR assay testing can be utilized by laboratories to screen rapidly the VOC B.1.1.7 variants, thus enabling early detection of B.1.1.7 variant infection and transmission in population. This in turn will pave way to implement suitable preventive measures by appropriate authorities to control the transmission of the viral variant.

Impact of COVID-19 online classes on morningness-eveningness personality among adult college students: A survey study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 emerged as a serious pandemic in 2019 and billions of people were infected. Various precautionary methods were taken to contain the spread of virus such as social distancing, public lockdown, sanitation, and closure of schools and colleges. Many colleges started online classes to resume their syllabus and to complete the course curriculum. These evening online sessions resulted in late night sleep, long term mobile/computer exposure, and disturbed sleep pattern. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to determine the impact of COVID-19 online classes on morningness- eveningness personality and to compare it with different age groups, gender, and body mass index. METHODS: The cluster sampling method was used to collect the subjects from the total of 1153 adult college students, 897 subjects were selected based on the selection criteria and instructed to submit an online survey consists of the Morningness-eveningness Questionnaire and demographic and anthropometric data through mail, social media, or through a researcher by direct interview. RESULTS: The mean score for the 897 participants is 56.7, indicating intermediate morningness-eveningness personality type. On comparing the different groups, the youngest group (18-20 years) scored 4.23%(mean = 46.7), female subjects scored 6.13%(mean = 58.1), the underweight 2.67%(mean = 59.2) and overweight groups scored 2.89%(mean = 59.7) indicating definite eveningness. Among the 897 collected samples of the population 8.13%of the subjects experienced definite eveningness, 14.93%has moderate eveningness, 17.38%are under intermediate category, 22.4%have moderate morningness, and 37.11%have definite morningness. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects with eveningness personality have high risk of developing mental illness, thus it's important to determine the eveningness personality among student population to avoid serious complications in later age.

Prevalence of high blood pressure and risk factors among health care workers during Covid-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: During humanitarian crisis health-care professionals are the frontline workers to provide best services to the community. The health care professionals are potential to expose many stressors at work place is believed to provoke stress. The COVID-19 pandemic is creating lots of stress to everyone.The aim of this study is to find the prevalence of high blood pressure and cardiac risk factors among health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Total no of 137 health care professionals were selected based on inclusion criteria out of them 80 subjects were selected based on simple random sampling and included for the study. RESULTS: The majority of subjects 38 (47.5%) are 25-35 years of age, 29 (36.2%) are 36-45 years of age and 13 (16.2%) are 46-55years of age. With regards to gender, 42 (52.5%) were males and 38 (47.5%) were females. The findings of the present study speculate that all the male health care workers having high percentage of body fat as 26.06, the average heart rate wasmeasured as 92.5 BPM. Further, 52.4% of them are having stage 1 hypertension.However,the is no abnormality was found in pulse pressure among the health care workers. CONCLUSION: This study evidenced that 52.4% of the health care workers having high blood pressure and all the participants have high body fat percentage 26.06 with body mass index as overweight 25.4. Further, it evidences that they are under risk of developing hypertension.

An observational study on endurance of post COVID-19 patients

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to evaluate the endurance capacity on post COVID patient and evaluate the oxygen saturation in post COVID patient. METHODS: 60 subjects based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, study setting: the individual of SCPT, Materials: Pulse oximetry, Stopwatch, Cones. Study design: Observational study, Sampling method: convenient sampling. Outcome measures: Six minute walk test (6MWT) and SpO2 (Oxygen saturation). In procedureCOVID-19 patients will be selected using convenient sample technique based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria after the collected data was tabulated and analyzed using descriptive & inferential statistics CONCLUSION: Therefore, it was concluded thatthe 6-minute walk test was effective in post COVID-19 patient and shows increase in endurance capacity and oxygen saturation level. © 2021 Turkish Physiotherapy Association. All rights reserved.

A framework for a multimodal intensive care curriculum for anesthesiologists during COVID-19

INTRODUCTION: As need outstrips intensivist supply, anesthesiologists are a natural fit to step in and serve in COVID ICU care teams. We describe an educational package designed to improve anesthesiologists' self-efficacy and willingness to work in the COVID ICU. METHODS: Over 7 days, 4 ICU trained anesthesiologists from our 958-bed quaternary care facility created a distance learning, online platform for the affiliated private practice anesthesia group. The program was developed using an iterative process with input from the anesthesiologists. The multimodal format included 13 lectures as well as 3 online interactive video sessions. Each lecture included a bulleted summary document, a PowerPoint presentation and a recorded video lecture. Material was presented using a flipped classroom approach with online material distributed first, followed by interactive sessions moderated by specialists from pulmonary, anesthesia and emergency critical care. At the end of the curriculum, a survey was sent to the 27 attending anesthesiologists identified as the initial backup staffing cohort. RESULTS: 11 out of 27 surveys were completed. 1 of the 11 did not access the content. Of the remaining 10, 90% reported that the material conferred additional benefit beyond that provided by other online COVID educational resources. All reported that the material made them feel more comfortable with recognizing major issues associated with caring for the COVID ICU patient, 80% reported a reduction in stress level and 80% felt that it improved their willingness to take care of COVID ICU patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our group was successful in quickly creating effective online COVID ICU educational materials using a combination of low tech mediums. These materials supported distance learning for a group of attending anesthesiologists from a large private practice group working in a large academic medical center. While national resources are available, our experience highlights that local resources represent an important supplement. The fact that our program was successfully implemented quickly at a large academic medical center but targeted private practice anesthesiologists, was low tech and used only materials readily available to many highlights its applicability to hospitals throughout the nation.

Influence of protective mask on cervical spine dysfunction during covid-19 pandemic

Introduction: World health organization recommends protective mask as a primary preventive measure to offbeat the Covid-19 pandemic. There are many commercially available protective masks, in that N-99, N-95, and 3 layer surgical masks are com-monly used among peoples. Prolonged usage of this protective mask can cause forward neck posture and weakness of cervical flexors muscles. Objective: The objective of this study is to find out the influence of the protective mask on cervical spine dysfunction. Methods: An observational study was conducted by screening 237 participants;in that 110 participants were enrolled for the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All these participants were categorized based on the type of protective mask and underwent forward neck posture assessment by using the Cranio-vertebral angle through Kinovean software and cervical flexor muscle endurance test. Results: The mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 42.64 and cervical flexor endurance is 8.5 for the participants using N-99 protective mask, the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 65.866 and cervical flexor endurance is 19.911 for the participants using N-95 protective mask and the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 72.193 and cervical flexor endurance is 27.49 for the participants using 3-layer surgical mask. Conclusion: The analyzed results prove that patients using N99 type of protective mask reported decreased cervical muscle endurance and Cranio-vertebral angle when compared to N95 and 3 layers protective mask. Copyright@IJCRR.