ABSTRACT
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on children and adolescents with migraine. Method(s): This longitudinal cohort study enrolled children and adolescents with migraine from the Department of Pediatric Neurology at our hospital from January 2017 to June 2021. Self-re-ported data from individual headache diaries were used. The patients were questioned about their headache frequency and intensity, stress, physical activity, changes in mood and sleep, and their school and home lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pediatric Migraine Disability Assessment (Ped-MIDAS) scoring system was applied to assess headache-related disability. Result(s): In total, 325 pediatric migraine patients (mean age 12.8+/-5.6 years, 62.5% female) were included in this study. The average monthly frequency of migraine headaches was 2.17+/-1.32 and 4.62+/-3.29 before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.001), respectively. The Ped-MIDAS score was obtained for 207 patients both before and during the pandemic, and the total score slightly increased from 13.8 to 14.7 points (P=0.295). Sixty patients (18.5%) showed significantly worsening migraine headaches. Younger age (P=0.017), mood deterioration (P<0.001), sleep problems (P<0.001), increased acute medication use (P=0.010), and larger changes in the Ped-MIDAS score (P=0.002) were significantly associated with worsening headache in the logis-tic regression analysis. Conclusion(s): Headache attacks in children and adolescents with migraine were more frequent during the COVID-19 pandemic than before it. Worsening headaches could be independently at-tributed to younger age, mood deterioration, and poor sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic.Copyright © 2022 Korean Child Neurology Society.
ABSTRACT
This narrative review aims to identify psycho-social issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among vulnerable populations. Through understanding the psychosocial meanings underneath, the suffering from the pandemic and the transformative experiences toward better society could be substantiated. Searching relevant studies and literature on psycho-social impacts in relation to COVID-19 was conducted from psycho-social points of view. Vulnerable populations such as the mentally ill, the poor, refugees, immigrants, the elderly, and other stigmatized groups were focused on. Reflections and plans on the worsened health disparities and increased stresses among vulnerable groups will help our society to be healthier and safer.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: In many studies, abnormal liver function test has been reported in more than half of the COVID-19 patients. However, it is not known for the liver involvement of the virus according to the strain. We investigated the features of liver injury in the COVID-19 patients with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) variants. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective study that included 375 patients between 1 February 2020 and 31 November 2020 (pre-Delta period (PDP) group) and 125 patients between 1 August 2021 and 31 August 2021 (Delta period (DP) group) hospitalized for COVID-19 at National Medical Center in Korea. Initial liver injury was defined as ALT or AST levels ≥ 3 9 upper limit of normal (ULN), or ALP or total bilirubin ≥ 2 9 ULN within 3 days from admission. Severe COVID-19 was defined as respiration rate ≥ 30, oxygen saturation ≤ 93%, or oxygen requirement with pneumonia. Results: Of 500 patients with COVID-19, 301 (60.2%) had abnormal liver test and 43 (8.6%) had liver injury within 3 days. The patients with abnormal liver test were similar in both groups. (58.4%vs60.8% P = 0.635). On the other hand, the DP group had a significantly higher proportion of liver injury than the PDP group (15.2% [n = 19]vs.6.4%[n = 24], P = 0.002). The DP group (Odds ratio (OR), 2.539;95% confidence interval (CI), 1.211-5.325;P = 0.014), patients with pneumonia involvement over 50% of lung field at admission (OR, 4.982;95% CI, 1.966-12.625;P = 0.001), younger patients (OR,0.963;95%CI,0.940-0.988;P = 0.003), lower creatinine at admission (OR,0.132;95%CI,0.028-0.631;P = 0.011), higher CRP at admission (OR,1.009;95%CI,1.003-1.015;P = 0.002) were independently associated with liver injury. During hospitalization, 164 patients had severe COVID-19. The DP group and initial liver injury were high odds of progressing to severe COVID-19 (OR 2.867;95%CI 1.244-6.608, and OR 3.229;95% CI 1.131-9.219, respectively). Conclusion: Initial liver injury is more common in COVID-19 patients with Delta variants. Also, Delta variants is associated with poor clinical outcomes. Therefore, careful monitoring in COVID-19 patients with Delta variants is needed.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A global pandemic has been declared for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has serious impacts on human health and healthcare systems in the affected areas, including Vietnam. None of the previous studies have a framework to provide summary statistics of the virus variants and assess the severity associated with virus proteins and host cells in COVID-19 patients in Vietnam. METHOD: In this paper, we comprehensively investigated SARS-CoV-2 variants and immune responses in COVID-19 patients. We provided summary statistics of target sequences of SARS-CoV-2 in Vietnam and other countries for data scientists to use in downstream analysis for therapeutic targets. For host cells, we proposed a predictive model of the severity of COVID-19 based on public datasets of hospitalization status in Vietnam, incorporating a polygenic risk score. This score uses immunogenic SNP biomarkers as indicators of COVID-19 severity. RESULT: We identified that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is most prevalent in southern areas of Vietnam and it is different from other areas in the world using various data sources. Our predictive models of COVID-19 severity had high accuracy (Random Forest AUC = 0.81, Elastic Net AUC = 0.7, and SVM AUC = 0.69) and showed that the use of polygenic risk scores increased the models' predictive capabilities. CONCLUSION: We provided a comprehensive analysis for COVID-19 severity in Vietnam. This investigation is not only helpful for COVID-19 treatment in therapeutic target studies, but also could influence further research on the disease progression and personalized clinical outcomes.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Drug Treatment , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections , Pneumonia, Viral , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19/epidemiology , Genome-Wide Association Study , Humans , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , Vietnam/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Unprecedented retardation of spring water temperature rising during the 2020 pandemic year was identified in the Socheongcho Ocean Research Station within the northeastern basin of the Yellow Sea: an exceptionally high water temperature anomaly in March and a contrasted low-temperature anomaly in May. The slowest temperature evolution was principally caused by the significant increase in latent heat releases in April (117% higher than the climatology of 1982-2019). Strong northwesterly winds generated these exceptional heat fluxes associated with the dipole-like atmospheric circulation pattern over Siberia and the East Sea (Japan Sea). Besides, warm winter water facilitated the enhanced release of latent heat fluxes as a precondition. The oceanic heat redistribution partially supported the cold anomaly in the surface layer up to the middle of May through positive feedback between the low surface temperature and the active entrainment associated with tidal turbulent mixing. The resultant low temperature at the surface weakened the vertical stratification, both impeding the activation of phytoplankton's photosynthesis albeit under the eutrophic surface layer, consequently resulting in the delayed and suppressed spring bloom during 2020. Since such extreme events are anticipated to occur more frequently under global warming, our results highlight the importance of continuously monitoring multi-disciplinary environmental conditions, climate extremes, and their impact on the Yellow Sea marine ecosystem.
ABSTRACT
This study seeks to overcome COVID-19 and re-examine the balcony as a new, differentiated residential space that requires change in the coming post-corona era. In this study, theoretical considerations on the concept and definition of the balcony and the original purpose and function are reviewed. This study compares and analyzes standards and cases for open balconies that can function as private outdoor spaces in Korea and major foreign countries. The key results of this study are as follows. First, while in Korea, the system is operated to install an open balcony as one of the specialized measures in terms of urban landscape, overseas, the system is designed to perform the original function of the balcony, such as a comfortable living environment and space for evacuation that it is operating. Second, while in Korea, the scale of installation of balconies is limited through regulations that exclude the inclusion of floor area, in overseas countries, specific standards for the shape of open balconies, such as the protruding width and length, are prepared. As a follow-up to this study, institutional research should be conducted to specify the standard for the shape and size of external balconies, and safety and performance standards. © 2021 Architectural Institute of Korea.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to the need for tracking of physical contacts and potential exposure to disease. Traditional contact tracing can be augmented by electronic tools called "electronic contact tracing" or "exposure notification.". Some methods were built to work with smartphones;however, smartphones are not prevalent in some high-contact areas (e.g., schools and nursing homes). We present the design and initial testing of low-cost, highly privacy preserving wearable exposure notification devices. Several devices were constructed based on existing hardware and operated independently of a smartphone. The method (devices and analyses) was not able to reliably use the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) as a proxy for distance between pairs of devices;the accuracy of RSSI as a proxy for distance decreased dramatically outside of the idealized conditions. However, even an imperfect device could be useful for research on how people use and move through spaces. With some improvement, these devices could be used to understand disease spread and human or animal interaction in indoor environments.