Association of Early Heparin Use among Patients with Covid-19 and Sepsis and Hospital Outcomes

INTRODUCTION: There is published literature about COVID-19 disease associated coagulopathy in hospitalized patients. We aim to study association of early heparin use among adult patients with COVID-19 and sepsis and hospital outcomes. METHOD(S): Retrospective study utilizing the EMR (electronic medical record) data at a large tertiary care academic center with ICU patients admitted for COVID-19 and sepsis and received therapeutic heparin for anticoagulation. We reported nominal variables in (gender, exposure - yes/no, etc) as number and percentage. And reported continuous (age, length of stay, etc) as median (IQR). We used Chi Square test and t-test as appropriate for nominal and continuous data analysis. This study was IRB approved. RESULT(S): A total of 230 patients with age >=18 years were included in final analysis. Out of these, 183 (79.6%) patients received heparin within 48 hours of ICU admission and 47 (20.4%) after 48 hours. The median (IQR) age was 67.5 years (58-77) with majority being caucasian (73.9%) male (68%) patients. Overall, 59 (26%) patients had died, 86 (37%) had been discharged home without assistance, 12 (5%) discharged home, with home health from the hospitals. In univariable analysis, early (< 48 hours) administration of heparin was associated reduced utilization of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) (OR 0.23, p=< 0.01) and non-IMV (NIMV) (OR 0.49, p=0.03) and reduced ICU (MD -1.64, SE 0.58, p=< 0.01 and hospital length of stay (LOS) (MD-4.15, SE 0.93, p=< 0.01. This association remained significant when model was adjusted for age, gender, BMI, race, ethnicity, SOFA score on day 1, APACHE-III score on ICU admission: IMV utilization (aOR 0.12, p=< 0.01), NIMV utilization (aOR 0.47, p=0.35), ICU LOS (MD -1.65, SE 0.57, p=< 0.01) and hospital length of stay (MD -4.43, SE 0.95, p=< 0.01). The hospital mortality was observed to be not statistically significant (unadjusted OR 0.68, p=0.28 and adjusted OR 0.67, p=0.32) due to small sample size. CONCLUSION(S): Early administration of heparin in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 sepsis was associated with reduced utilization of IMV and NIMV and reduced hospital LOS. Association with reduced hospital mortality did not reach the statistical significance.

Innovation in Teaching and Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Absorption and Reflection Spectra with Low Cost Spectrometer

The work demonstrated that a low-cost spectrometer and ImageJ serve as an accurate, reliable, and robust model and tool for learners to grasp concepts in the Introductory Physics Lab Course context. The model design was self-paced while promoting active and peer learning for students. Image analysis within the experimental activity adds to the novelty of the lesson. Within the experimental accuracy, the measurement was shown to correctly identify the absorption spectra of Potassium Dichromate, Methylene Blue, and Potassium Permanganate and to describe the subtractive color-mixing model where Cyan absorbs Red accurately, Magenta absorbs Green, and Yellow absorbs Blue.

Association of SARS-CoV-2 IgG Antibody Levels with Clinical/Laboratory Characteristics in COVID-19 Patients: Data from a Turkish Study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 causes clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic infection to multi-organ failure. It is reported that those with severe disease have higher anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers compared to asymptomatic or mild cases. We evaluated the correlation of antibody responses with laboratory and clinical indicators in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Seventy-nine male and 66 female patients (mean age: 39) with at least one positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test and SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody result after acute infection were included. RESULTS: Seventy-six (52%), 45 (31%), and 24 (17%) patients had mild, moderate, and severe clinical findings, respectively. Patients with high body mass index and advanced age had significantly more severe disease (p < 0.001). A significant correlation was found between the increase in lymphopenia, C-reactive protein, ferritin, D-dimer, and lactate dehydrogenase and the severity of clinical findings (p = 0.0001). SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody test was positive in 128 (88.3%) patients. A significant correlation was found between disease severity and antibody levels in the comparison of all groups (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Long-term monitoring of immune responses will be required to determine the appropriate time for the administration of new vaccines.

2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): Toward a Novel Design for Smart Waste Management Robot

With the rise and spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, there is a global health emergency (SARS-CoV-2). Because of the epidemic of new coronavirus disease-2019, clinics and institutions' isolation facilities have generated a massive amount of clinical waste (COVID-19). The biggest contributors to waste volume are personal protective equipment, test strips, medical facemasks, and hand gloves. As garbage functions as a carrier for SARS-CoV-2, it could result in the exponential spread of this devastating disease. Furthermore, proper COVID-waste disposal is urgently required to reduce the risk of pandemic propagation and to ensure long-Term treatment of the disease environmental threats. In order to combat the lack of specialized antiviral therapy, it is critical to create new balance techniques and guarantee that existing ones are effective in the field. The objective of this study is to design and develop an intelligent Robot that can collect medical waste from COVID-19 isolation wards and then dispose it of in an environment friendly manner. Furthermore, the focus of this research is to use IoT-based robot technology to design sprinkling with UV devices for antiseptic-disinfection. This study may be useful to avoid and control the pandemic of compatible episodes in the future. © 2022 IEEE.

2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): Toward a Novel Design for Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal Swabbing Robot

The world still suffers from the global pandemic of corona virus. The COVID 19 is a disease that majorly influence the patient's respiratory system and degrade the performance of the immune system. The Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCRs) is commonly used method to assist the health care service in detection the viral disease. It permits identifying the defined chains of the virus genetic code in sputum samples. The front-line staffs are susceptible to infection by COVID 19 during direct swab test that unfortunately subjects them to a high level of risk. To remedy this problem, this paper introduces a flexible swabbing robot for oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal. This robot is teleworked-based to perform swab sampling with consisting of a flexible manipulator, an integrated endoscope monitor, and the main device. The additional components incorporate a passive locating arm, an active end effector, and a detachable swab handles capable to sense forces. The achieved results revealed the capability of the proposed system in the detection COVID 19 of PCRs specimens based on little data acquired from the clinicians. © 2022 IEEE.

Novel biomarker-based score (SAD-60) for predicting mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia: a multicenter retrospective cohort of 1013 patients.

Background: The aim was to explore a novel risk score to predict mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: This was a retrospective, multicenter study. Results: A total of 1013 patients with COVID-19 were included. The mean age was 60.5 ± 14.4 years, and 581 (57.4%) patients were male. In-hospital death occurred in 124 (12.2%) patients. Multivariate analysis revealed peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2), albumin, D-dimer and age as independent predictors. The mortality score model was given the acronym SAD-60, representing SpO2, Albumin, D-dimer, age ≥60 years. The SAD-60 score (0.776) had the highest area under the curve compared with CURB-65 (0.753), NEWS2 (0.686) and qSOFA (0.628) scores. Conclusion: The SAD-60 score has a promising predictive capacity for mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): Toward a Novel Design for Disinfection Robot to Combat Coronavirus (Covid-19) Using IoT Based Technology

Coronavirus Disease 19 or well known as Covid-19 is infectious disease that attack human respirator system. This virus is contagious due to its fast transmission from small droplets that come to people that sneezing, coughing, or even talking. This virus can stay in air for long time and it also can survive on the inanimate surface things. During this time, some places like hospital, mall, and station are places where crowds gathered. People in those places have possibility to spread the virus not only through close contact but also due to touching the infected surfaces. That is why device that able to clean the infected surfaces needed. The Internet of Things based robots may give big impact in combating the coronavirus that stay on inanimate surfaces. The proposed system is the robot that able to disinfect the surfaces of things using UV-C lights. The implementation of UV disinfectant robot will indeed help health authorities in reducing the transmission. © 2021 IEEE.

Toward a Novel Design for Mechanical Ventilator System to Support Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Infected Patients Using IoT Based Technology

Recent pandemic of Covid-19 has diffused and become concern to the world. The disease is contagious and infected many people within short time. The Covid-19 has infected more than 100 million of reported cases according to the WHO with more than 2 million deaths. Many symptoms found in infectee of Covid-19 such as fever, dry cough, etc. One of the symptoms, shortness of breath, is found in 18.6% of infectee. Part of people infected by COVID-19 suffered from acute difficulty in breathing which need a help from ventilator for breathing. The ventilator plays important role in saving the Covid-19 patients. Ventilator can aid the patient to breath easily and supporting the lungs by letting in the sufficient air while encountering the hard breathing. In developed area, the ventilator is limited while the demand during pandemic gets increased. This paper proposes a low-cost prototype of ventilator for Covid-19 patient which integrated with IoT. The technology supports the clinicians to monitor the patient condition by letting the ventilator and the phone or tablet to be connected and exchange information. © 2021 IEEE.

How correct is the postponed cholecystectomy during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic process? Gallstone ileus is not a myth anymore.

Posponer cirugías electivas durante el proceso pandémico de Covid-19 aumentó el riesgo de complicaciones graves de enfermedades benignas. El íleo biliar es una de las raras complicaciones de la colelitiasis (0,3-0,5%). Los episodios recurrentes de colecistitis aguda están involucrados en la fisiopatología. La demostración de la tríada de Rigler en tomografía computarizada es diagnóstica. Para reducir la morbilidad se recomienda la cirugía dos etapas: extirpar el cálculo por enterotomía en la primera operación, cirugía biliar en la segunda operación. El íleo biliar debe estar en el diagnóstico diferencial de las obstrucciones intestinales mecánicas, especialmente en pacientes con antecedentes de ataques de colecistitis durante el proceso pandémico de Covid-19 porque las cirugías electivas se detuvieron.Postponing elective surgeries during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic process increased the risk of severe complications of benign diseases. Gallstone ileus is one of the rare complications of cholelithiasis (0.3-0.5%). Recurrent episodes of acute cholecystitis are involved in pathophysiology. Demonstration of Rigler's triad on computed tomography is diagnostic. To reduce morbidity stepped surgery is recommended: remove the stone by enterotomy at the first operation and biliary surgery at the second operation. Gallstone ileus should be in the differential diagnosis of mechanical intestinal obstructions, especially in patients with a history of cholecystitis attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic process because elective surgeries stopped.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Pharmacy Education in Malaysia and Indonesia

The pandemic has affected all walks of life and businesses, including education at all levels. Movement controls have forced the schools and universities to migrate the teaching and learning to be fully online. Some universities in large cities in Malyasia had already implemented blended learning and thus, were better prepared to adjust to the current situation. However, the universities, which practiced mainly traditional didactic courses, were struggling to suddenly change the mode of delivery. Many relied on the creativity of the lecturers and students.

Novel covid-19 detection and diagnosis system using iot based smart helmet

Coronavirus is the new virus that has not been identified in humans before which it causes the coronavirus disease called COVID-19. This disease was firstly discovered in Wuhan, China, on December 2019 and spread to the world until now. The virus can easily pass from person to person which make it spreaded rapidly. One of the common symptom of COVID-19 that can be easily identified is fever. Since the virus outbreak, thermal screening using infrared thermometers are used at public places to check the body temperature to identify the indicated infectee among crowd. This prevention still lacking because it spends a lot of time to check the body temperature from every person and the most importance is the close contact of the infectee might lead to spreading it to the person who do the screening process or from the one in charge of screening to the checked people. This study proposes the design of system that has capability to detect the coronavirus automatically from the thermal image with less human interactions using smart helmet with Mounted Thermal Imaging System. The thermal camera technology is integrated to the smart helmet and combined with IoT technology for monitoring of the screening process to get the real time data. In addition, the proposed system is Equipped with the facial-recognition technology, it can also display the pedestrian's personal information which can automatically take pedestrians' temperatures. This proposed design has a high in demands from the healthcare system and can potentially help to prevent for coronavirus spreading wider. © 2020, Hampstead Psychological Associates. All rights reserved.

2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19): Detection and diagnosis system using iot based smart glasses

The most recent pneumonia outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in China is posing a great threat and declared a global public health emergency. This disease was firstly discovered in Wuhan, China, on December 2019 and spread to the world until now. Nowadays, infrared thermometers are being used everywhere to check the body temperature in places with large number of people. But this action is not really effective even it might cause the spread of the coronavirus from the infectious people to the person who does the screening process. In order to solve this issue, the fast and precise identification of coronavirus is needed. The aim of this study is to design a system that has capability to detect the coronavirus automatically from the thermal image fast with less human interactions using IoT based smart glasses technology. Furthermore, the proposed design has capability to perform face detection on suspected case of Covid-19 among crowds who has high body temperature. The design will add information of the visited location of the suspected carriers of the virus through Google Location History (GLH) to provide reliable data on the detection process. © 2020 SERS.

Toward a novel design for coronavirus detection and diagnosis system using iot based drone technology

The outbreak of the recent pneumonia that caused by a new coronavirus (COVID-19) in China is posturing an extraordinary risk to the worldwide general health. The spreading of this coronavirus that infected people is highly increase because most of them do not realize the common symptom of this virus is fever or high body temperature. Because of the spreading keep rising rapidly, nowadays, infrared thermometers are being used everywhere to check the body temperature in places with large number of people. But this action is not really effective even it might cause the spread of the coronavirus from the infectious people to the person who does the screening process. So in order to solve this, an alternative is needed. In this manner, quick and an exact identifiable proof of pathogenic infections plays an imperative part in adopting suitable treatments, maintaining people’s lives and avoiding plagues. It is necessary to set up a speedy standard symptomatic test for the recognizing of the infectious malady (COVID-19) to avoid consequent minor spread. Thus, the fast and precise identification of coronavirus is hence getting to be progressively critical. The aim of this study is to design a system that has capability to detect the coronavirus automatically from the thermal image fast with less human interactions using IoT based drone technology. Furthermore, the proposed design has capability for using Virtual Reality or VR so the live video scanning process will be monitored through the VR screen to make it realistic and less human interaction. This proposed design has a high potential in order to fulfil the demands from the healthcare. © 2020, Hampstead Psychological Associates. All rights reserved.