ABSTRACT
Introduction: Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of acute abdominal pain as well as one of the most frequently performed procedures in general surgery. Different prognostic laboratory markers have been studied to identify patients with complicated appendicitis and it is unknown whether the level of procalcitonin in adults could be used as a predictive marker. From a cut-off point, Does procalcitonin have predictive value for complicated appendicitis? Methods: Prospective, observational study. Patients from the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara with a diagnosis of Appendicitis, presurgical laboratory studies and Procalcitonin, and undergo appendectomy in this institution. A calculated sample was obtained based on the surgeries performed annually. Result(s): 80 appendicectomies were performed in the 12-month period (2021;COVID pandemic) obtaining: 37 patients with uncomplicated appendicitis (Phase I and II) 43 patients with complicated appendicitis (Phase III and IV) The procalcitonin levels of both groups were analyzed to demonstrate differences between them, Mann-Whitney U test gives us as a result a p value <0.05. For the cut-off point at the most suitable procalcitonin level for this sample we decided to use the Yauden index method in the analysis of the ROC curve: it is observed that the cut-off point with a sensitivity of 72.1% and a specificity of 81.1% for the sample is 0.305. Conclusion(s): Procalcitonin has been shown to be a useful marker for discriminating the severity of appendicitis and that the best cutoff point for this sample is 0.3 ng/dl.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is cha-racterized by pulmonary involvement. However, there are reports on patients also suffering from concomitant renal involvement, with clinical manifestations such as hematuria, proteinuria, ele-vated nitrogen levels and acute kidney injury. Objective: The present study reports two clinical cases of nephrotic syndrome associated with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Clinical case presentation: Histological imaging by electron microscopy showed, in one case, evidence of minimal changes and fusion of podocytes pedicels, and in the other one, podocyto-pathy with pedicels loss (70 %) and focal sclerosis of capillary loops. Discussion: Proteinuria in COVID-19 can be secondary to glomerular and acute tubular lesions, with a multifactorial origin: Hemodynamic factors, cytokine storms, secondary infections, drug-induced nephrotoxicity and direct viral infection (proximal tubule cells and podocytes). The latter mechanisms could be explained by SARS-CoV2 renal tropism. Conclusion: The present report presents two cases of nephrotic syndrome secondary to po-docytopathy in patients suffering from acute COVID-19 infection. © 2023, Asociacion Colombiana de Nefrologia e Hipertension Arterial. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has forced countries to declare states of emergency and implement containment measures to reduce the spread of the virus. Teaching, as well as teaching-learning processes, have abruptly migrated from the classroom to digital platforms, a reason why both students and professors have needed to adapt, with their own available resources and means, both the spaces and dynamics of instruction. Background: To distinguish what are the contributing factors related to prevention measures against the appearance of SARSCoV-2 and its impact on teaching practice in basic education in Mexico. Methods: The information analysis was carried out with studies whose variables involve both education and the COVID-19 lockdown. The found articles were synthesized using an analytical sheet to which the PRISMA method was applied. Results: The process for screening the results, through the PRISMA method, allowed discarding studies based on inclusion, exclusion and elimination criteria, obtaining a sample of sixteen articles, of which 44% are quantitative studies, 38% are qualitative and 19% are mixed studies. The analysis of the reported studies allowed to identify four major groups focused on the problems related to the migration of education from the face-to-face to the virtual modality. Conclusions: Adequate management of education during and after the pandemic must become a priority issue of public policy with an occupational health approach.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The pandemic derived from COVID-19 has caused a great impact in all the contexts in wich the human being operates, including the labor context. Multiple studies have shown the influence that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on both public and private organizations. From this derives the importance of assessings the real work context of the Mexican population in times of pandemic and the factors that are related to the appearance of psychological exhaustion. OBJECTIVE: To compare the sociocultural conditions and the presence of psychological exhaustion in workers of government institutions and individuals in southern Jalisco during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive correlational study, with a non-probabilistic sample of two organizations;one of a public governmental nature and another private of a food business. The dependent variable was psychological exhaustion addressed through instrument 4 of the CTCPS-MAC battery. RESULTS: Significant differences were identified between both companies in two of the three factors that make up psychological exhaustion, in the cognitive-emotional response factor (z = -3.920, p < 0.05) and in the physiological response factor (z = -31.982, p < 0.05) the employees of the private company are considered more vulnerable. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of general psychological exhaustion are higher in the workers of private companies, as well as in the dimensions that comprise it.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Its symptoms are similar to those of the common flu, including fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and fatigue. Due to its rapid expansion globally, the World Health Organization (OMS) declared it a pandemic. The molecular test commonly used worldwide for direct detection of the virus is the RT-PCR test but it takes time to process and the materials used are scarce. In this work we propose: (a) The design and implementation of a deep neural network architecture for the detection of patients with COVID-19 using as input X-ray images of the chest;the architecture is made up of a feature extraction phase, that is, a pre-trained model VGG16 extracts the features of the image;then in the second phase, a multilayer neural network classifies into one of two particular classes (1: COVID, 0: NO COVID). (b) The implementation of a Web platform that allows interested people to use our architecture in a clear, simple and transparent way. The deep learning algorithm was implemented in Python with specific libraries for the design of neural networks, while the Web platform was implemented in PHP using the Laravel framework and MySQL database. We evaluate the performance of our proposal using the sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) evaluation metrics, obtaining good results in very short computational times.