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Background The impact of COVID-19 on major adverse lower extremity (MALE) and cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) is unknown. Methods Using the VA Corporate Data Warehouse, Veterans with PAD were identified. Rates of MALE (amputation or lower extremity revascularization [LER]), and MACE (death, MI, or coronary revascularization) were assessed in pre-pandemic (3/11/2019-3/10/2020), early-pandemic (3/11/2020-3/10/2021), and late-pandemic (3/11/2021-3/10/2022) periods. Outcomes were compared using Kaplan-Meier method. Results Of 418,042 Veterans (mean age 72 yrs) with PAD, 76.7% were white and 96.8% male. Furthermore, 89.2% had HTN, 60.4% diabetes, 49.3% CAD, 21.6% heart failure, and 20.5% atrial fibrillation. From 3/11/2019 to 3/10/2022, 3,100 had amputation, 8,187 had LER, & 2,229 had MACE. Amputation rates declined and continued to decline in early- and late-pandemic period (306 to 268 to 235;p<0.001;rates per 100k). Rates of LER declined initially and stabilized in late-pandemic period (951 to 587 to 609;p < 0.001;rates per 100k). MACE did not change significantly. (215 to 168 to 202;p<0.001;rates per 100k). Conclusion Amputation rates in Veterans with PAD did not increase despite a clinically significant decline in LER. Given the known efficacy of noninvasive therapies in PAD, these data suggest that there is a need to re-evaluate appropriate indications for LER and amputation. [Formula presented]Copyright © 2023 American College of Cardiology Foundation
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During the COVID-19 pandemic some organizations chose to restrict the number of people permitted to occupy a room simultaneously. People in these organizations often had difficulty finding an available room. In this study we designed, implemented, and evaluated a mobile app-based real-time room occupancy estimation system named AkiKomi. The system comprises a set of distributed Grid-EYE sensors, a Message Queueing Telemetry Transport broker hosted in the Amazon Web Service cloud platform, and a mobile app that runs on users' mobile devices. We conducted a pilot usability test using the System Usability Scale questionnaire. The results showed that the system achieved a total score of 73.4, above the cut-off threshold of good usability. © 2022 IEEE.
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This study was aimed at evaluating the changes in the antibody titers and neutralization ability before and after inoculation with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer, USA) among healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Japan. A total of 221 HCPs were enrolled and their blood samples were collected at three time points: (1) before vaccination, (2) 3 weeks after the first dose, and (3) 3 weeks after the second dose. The titers of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein IgG antibody were measured in all the samples using VITROS-Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S1 Quant IgG Antibody (CLEIA, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc.), and the surrogate Virus Neutralization Test (sVNT) (ELISA, GenScript, USA) was performed in the samples obtained after the vaccination. The anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG titers were (1) median: 0.16;Interquartile (IQR): 0.10-0.27, (2) median: 250;IQR: 99.5-466 and (3) median: 2,400;IQR: 1,480-3,950, respectively, at the three time-points. Our study also revealed the relationship between the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titer and the antibody neutralization activity.
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Objective: This study aimed at: 1) Assessment of the frequency of stroke and related mortality rate in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in two major hospital referral centers in Peru;2) Exploration of factors associated to mortality and dependency in these patients;3) Comparisons of frequency of admissions of stroke patients and reperfusion treatments in similar periods of time prior to (2019) and during the pandemia occurrence. Material(s) and Method(s): A retrospective cohort study was conducted in two of the largest referral hospital centers for COVID-19 in Peru. The study included patient victims of stroke and COVID-19, hospitalized between April and August 2020. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data, radiological findings, and severity levels measured by the NIHSS scale were collected. Poisson regression models to evaluate associated factors to mortality and dependency were applied. Result(s): A 31% reduction of admissions for stroke, and of 81% of intravenous reperfusion treatment, respectively, were found in 2020 when compared with 2019. 1.37% of the patients with COVID-19 experienced a stroke, with an overall mortality rate of 40.6%, and a dependency rate of 68.3% at discharge time (Rankin > 2). An age increase of 10 years was found in mortality, associated with a 29% increase in mortality risk. As well, having hypertension, chronic kidney disease, inflammatory markers (D dimer and ferritin) and the severity of the stroke were associated with mortality. Finally, the severity of stroke, lymphopenia, and inflammatory markers (D dimer and fibrinogen) were associated with greater risk of dependency. Conclusion(s): The care system of stroke patients was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in two of Peru's major public hospitals. There was a decrease in admissions and reperfusion treatments of stroke cases, and 1.37% of patients with COVID-19 presented a stroke. Age, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, inflammatory markers and severity of stroke were associated with mortality in these patients. Copyright 2022 With Intelligence Ltd.
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Objectives: Elimination of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) require continuous interventions. This study aimed to assess the response and impact of COVID-19 on Hepatitis prevention and treatment in Japan. This international joint research was conducted by three research groups of Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan with The Task Force for Global Health and in cooperation with Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH). Materials and Methods: We have conducted this cross-sectional study by questionnaire survey both in Japanese and English language on online Microsoft forms platform from 24 August to 03 October 2021. The questionnaire was designed to address the impact of COVID-19 on hepatitis treatment, testing, screening;mitigation strategies;response to COVID-19;and perceived benefits of COVID-19. Results: Total 196 medical doctors have participated from 35 prefectures among them 49.5% are in administrative positions. 55.6% of participants responded about no interruption while 11.7% reported supply chain disruptions during the survey period. 1-25% decrease in HBV screening, testing was reported by 38.8% and 43.9% participants, respectively. Decease of 1-25% in HCV screening, testing and were reported by 39.8% and 43.4% participants, respectively. However, no decline to initiate HBV and HCV treatment was reported by 53.6% and 45.4%, respectively. But extend of hospital visits was reported by 65.3%. The survey response illustrated the decrease in patients' imaging (65.8%), lab testing (68.4%), HCC screening (55.1%), gastrointestinal endoscopy (87.2%), and liver biopsy (43.4%). Patient anxiety and fear (67.4%), loss of staff to COVID-19 response (49.0%), and limited availability of staff (46.4%) are responded as challenges to resume services to pre-COVID-19 level. Conclusion: A greater decrease has been noticed in HBV and HCV testing, screening, and other associated liver diseases than treatment initiation in Japan. However, anxiety and fear of patients, lack of staff and facilities are major challenges to overcome such situation.
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COVID-19 has shocked the retail industry, customers’ concerns for their health and safety are taking business away from shopping malls. Mall owners are thinking of finding new ways to bring their business back in this post-pandemic world. How to protect customers from COVID-19 in shopping malls has been a problem. This study presents an enhanced mall security system to help enforce wearing masks and proper social distancing in shopping malls using augmented reality (AR). We created a novel visualization way: Radar vision to display detected people in the perspective of mall guards, to help guards react quickly to violations, and better enforce the mandatory rules. When the mall guards wearing hololens activate the radar vision function, they can see all people violating wearing masks or social distance mandates through the wall. Mall guards can use gaze to select the target person and then use the voice command to activate the navigation arrow to help them quickly go to the scene. In addition to helping mall guards to enforce mandates, the system also provides assisted functions to protect customers. When the violation situation appears around a customer, the system will alert them to avoid and show an avoidance arrow until the user goes in the correct direction. We demonstrated a preliminary system with four surveillance cameras in our school building area. The pilot study shows that our system can effectively detect and display radar images, increasing the efficiency of mall guards and reducing customer safety concerns. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background/Case Studies: COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) is plasma collected from individuals who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. The FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) restricts use of CCP to high titer units only. The purpose of this study was to determine if donor ABO blood group was associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody response and subsequent qualification as high titer CCP. Study Design/Methods: All CCP donations collected from April 21, 2020 to September 1, 2020 were included. The Abbott ARCHITECT semi-quantitative chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay was used to assess IgG antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein of SARSCoV- 2. The EUA-defined S/C threshold of ≥4.5 was used to qualify units as high titer. Results/Findings: A total of 232 CCP donations were evaluated. Donation characteristics stratified by ABO blood group are presented in Table 1. There were no significant differences in the distribution of donor gender (p=.166), donor age (p=0.342) and interval from symptom resolution to donation (p=0.770) by ABO blood group. The mean SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody S/C value was significantly lower in blood group O donations, compared to blood group A donations (p<0.001). There was no difference in antibody response between the other blood group pairings. There was a significant relationship between ABO blood group and number of high titer donations (p=.003), with blood group O donations having fewer high SARS-CoV-2 IgG titer units. Conclusions: Blood group O donations were found to have significantly lower levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG nucleocapsid antibodies compared to blood group A donations and were less likely to produce CCP units that qualified as high titer. These findings may aid donor recruitment to promote availability of high titer CCP to meet patient needs. (Table Presented).