ABSTRACT
Prevotella melanogenica is a typical organism present in the human oral cavity and female reproductive tract, which is responsible for causing periodontal disease and the inflammation of the female reproductive tract. The present report discusses the case of a young female patient who presented with cough and fever as the main clinical symptoms. Computed Tomography (CT) revealed multiple clusters of ground glass density shadows in both lungs, with network-like and paving stone-like changes. The alveolar lavage fluid was collected for next-generation sequencing, which revealed the presence of Prevotella melanogenica. The patient received treatments, CT revealed that the density of multiple flakes of ground glass density in both lungs was lower than the previously observed density. Prevotella melanogenica pneumonia is rare, and the paving stone symptom observed in CT is not specific. Therefore, the case reported here provides a novel perspective regarding the diagnosis of pneumonia.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pneumonia , Humans , Female , Lung , Pneumonia/complications , COVID-19/complications , Cough/etiology , Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methodsABSTRACT
Introduction: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the early detection and isolation of individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease 2 (SARS-CoV-2) through mass testing can effectively prevent disease transmission. SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid rapid detection based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) may be appropriate to include in testing procedures. Methods: We used 860 nasopharyngeal specimens from healthcare workers of Huashan Hospital and COVID-19 patients collected from April 7th to 21st, 2022, to assess the clinical diagnostic performance of the LAMP assay marketed by Shanghai GeneSc Biotech and compared it to the result of a rapid antigen test (RAT) head-to-head. Results: Overall, the diagnostic performance of LAMP assay and RAT were as follows. The LAMP assay represented higher sensitivity and specificity than RAT, especially in the extracted RNA samples. The sensitivity was 70.92% and 92.91% for direct LAMP and RNA-LAMP assay, respectively, while the specificity was 99.86% and 98.33%. The LAMP assay had overall better diagnostic performance on the specimens with relatively lower C t values or collected in the early phase (≤7 days) of COVID-19. The combination of LAMP assay and RAT improved diagnostic efficiency, providing new strategies for rapidly detecting SARS-CoV-2. Conclusion: The LAMP assay are suitable for mass screenings of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the general population.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With more emergency visits, there is increasing pressure to provide emergency medical services globally and locally. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics and the disease spectrum of patients presenting in the last three years to the Department of Emergency Medicine of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, a tertiary hospital in Tianjin, China, to improve the services of the emergency medicine department. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on all patients in the Department of Emergency Medicine of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from Jan 1, 2017, 00:00:00 to Dec 31, 2020, 23:59:59, including variables like medical record number, gender, age, date of admission, principal diagnosis. The data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software; statistical charts were prepared by GraphPad Prism9.0 and SPSS 20.0; statistical tables were made by Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: A total of 1,314,916 patients presented to the Department of Emergency Medicine of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from Jan 1, 2017, 00:00:00 to Dec 31, 2020, 23:59:59. In terms of gender distribution, the male-female ratio was 0.78â¶1. As for age distribution, patients aged 60-69 were the most (23.47%), and patients younger than 20 years were the least (2.80%). Concerning monthly data, the number of visits peaked during January and December. The distribution of daily visits showed the feature of three highs and a low. The top three prevalence diseases in the emergency disease spectrum were respiratory, cardiovascular, and digestive diseases. The respiratory system was the most common in patients with infectious diseases (200,912, accounting for 86.97%). Among the patients suffering from infectious diseases, the number of patients with respiratory infections peaked in 2019 (73,530) and was the lowest in 2020 (20,078). CONCLUSIONS: From 2017 to 2019, the demand for emergency services in Tianjin Medical University General Hospital continued to increase, but it was greatly affected by COVID-19 in 2020. This emergency department is mainly for patients with respiratory system, circulatory system and digestive system diseases, and its treatment time is relatively centralized. The prevention of diseases for people of all ages, especially female patients and the elderly, should be strengthened, and emergency medical resources should be allocated reasonably according to the peak months and crowed periods of patients.