ABSTRACT
The year 2020 witnessed a major shift in our society and the global economy due to the onset of COVID-19. Many newer trends are expected to surface as people grow more digitally savvy and embrace technology while working from home. This has also impacted the medical industry worldwide and has made healthcare preventive, predictive, and personalized. In healthcare, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of connected medical devices that can generate, collect, and store data as well as connect to a network, analyze data, and transmit data of various types such as medical images, physiological and vital body signatures, and genomics data. Real-time monitoring, improved diagnostics, robotic surgical interventions, and other medical IoT applications can all help improve outcomes in healthcare. Medical IoT refers to IoT devices and applications tailored to healthcare demands and environments. It includes sensors and apps for monitoring healthcare remotely, telemedicine consultation, and delivery. Medical IoT also uses AI and machine learning to assist life-transforming advancements in existent medical devices, such as the smart inhaler for asthma sufferers. IoT devices offer a lot of new opportunities for patient monitoring, both by the doctors and by the patients themselves. This is made possible by a variety of wearable IoT devices that promise an array of benefits but also pose challenges for all stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Medical IoT devices enable the collection of patient data in real-time, which is processed and evaluated thereafter. The information gathered is centralized for computing, processing, and storage. Centralization can be hazardous as it is vulnerable to multiple threats: failure at one point, mistrust, manipulation, tampering of data, and privacy evasion. Blockchain can address such critical issues by offering decentralized computation and storage for IoT data. COVID-19 brought out the benefits of technology and has reinforced the need to develop and secure more advanced applications including Medical IoT. We have advanced much, but there is a huge scope to explore, expand, and establish. © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: To study the relationship of Differential Leucocyte Count (DLC) with glycemic status in new cases of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) having normal Total Leucocyte Count (TLC) after it was noted that macrophages and monocytes have possible role in genesis of new diabetes in Covid-19 cases.Patients and Methods: Adult subjects with no history of T2D or any comorbidity having normal TLC were selected and classified as normal, prediabetes or T2DM based on OGTT. Demographics, glycemic status and hematological parameters were measured. Statistical analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 21.Results: 102 cases of new T2D mellitus and 164 non-diabetes controls (73 newly diagnosed prediabetes and 91 normal subjects) were compared. Absolute Monocyte Count (AMC) was significantly higher in T2D as compared to normal and PDM though values were within normal limits. Lymphocyte Monocyte Ratio (LMR) showed a decrease from normal to PDM to T2D;however only T2D was significantly different from normal. Monocytes and AMC showed significant but weak association with T2D. There was significant correlation between 1hrPG and AMC (r= 0.176, p<0.01), 1hrPG and LMR (r= - 0.169, p<0.01);2hrPG and AMC (r= 0.179, p<0.01), 2hrPG and LMR (r= - 0.142, p<0.05). Conclusion: Early T2D cases with normal TLC have shown that immunological and inflammatory profile in early T2D is definitely different from established T2D of long duration and has few similarities with findings in Covid-19 cases: 1) Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) is not raised in early T2D, 2) LMR is not increased in early T2D but definitely decreased, 3) absolute counts of monocytes are significantly increased in early T2D though the values are within normal limits, 4) abnormal glycemic status need not influence leucocyte counts. © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.