Treatments of COVID-19-Associated Taste and Saliva Secretory Disorders (preprint)

Since the worldwide spread of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), treating taste and saliva secretory disorders associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become one of the most critical issues in the COVID-19 era. The aim of the present study was to update information on treatments being applicable to such oral symptoms and discuss their pathogenic mechanisms. Promising treatments include different types of methods using tetracycline, corticosteroid, zinc, stellate ganglion block, phytochemical curcumin, traditional herbal medicine, nutraceutical vitamin D, photobiomodulation, antiviral drug, malic acid sialagogue, chewing gum, acupuncture, and/or moxibustion. At present, however, fully validated treatments are still lacking for COVID-19-associated ageusia/dysgeusia/hypogeusia and xerostomia/dry mouth/hyposalivation. An appropriately selected treatment and oral healthcare should be provided to COVID-19 patients and survivors suffering from taste and saliva secretory disorders. Understanding of currently available treatment options is required for dental profes-sionals because they not only experience patients who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 or recov-ered from COVID-19 but first become aware of their abnormal taste and salivary secretion. By doing so, dentists and dental hygienists can play a crucial role in managing COVID-19-associated oral symptoms and contribute to improving the oral health-related quality of life of the relevant dental patients.

Clinical presentation of neuroendocrine cancer metastasis to an anterior clinoid process meningioma invading superior orbital fissure. A case report.

Metastasis to a meningioma is an uncommon phenomenon however reported in the literature. Meningiomas are common primary intracranial tumours which most frequently occur to be a recepient of metastases. A 66-year-old female presented with rapid development of visual acuity and visual field loss in the right eye with ipsilateral oculomotor nerve palsy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed well-defined tumour intensely enhanced with contrast like a typical skull base meningioma. The neuropathological examination revealed two different morphological fragments of the tumour. In the cell-rich part of the tumour, immunopositivity for CK, chromogranin, and SY were detected. The less cellular portion of the tumour, immunopositivity to epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and vimentin were detected. To our knowledge, we present the first rare metastasis of neuroendocrine carcinoma to the medial sphenoid meningioma that preceded the clinical symptoms of systemic neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Infection of a sylvian Galassi II arachnoid cyst after craniotomy for resection of a parasagittal meningioma.

Arachnoid cysts are CSF-containing entities that rarely are symptomatic or warrant neurosurgical intervention. In addition, infection of these lesions is an even rarer event, with only four reports in the literature capturing this. In this report, we present the case of a 79-year-old man presenting with paraparesis, secondary to a right parasagittal meningioma, with an incidental asymptomatic right sylvian arachnoid cyst (Galassi type II). The initially planned surgery was postponed for 3 months, due to COVID-19 restrictions, and he was kept on high dose of steroids. Following tumour resection, the patient developed bilateral subdural empyemas with involvement of the arachnoid cyst, requiring bilateral craniotomies for evacuation of the empyemas and drainage of the arachnoid cyst. Suppuration of central nervous system arachnoid cysts is a very rare complication following cranial surgery with the main working hypotheses including direct inoculation from surrounding inflamed meninges or haematogenous spread secondary to systemic bacteraemia, potentiated by steroid-induced immunosuppression. Even though being a rarity, infection of arachnoid cysts should be considered in immunosuppressed patients in the presence of risk factors such as previous craniotomy.

Not all anosmia and fever was COVID-19 infection: a case report.

COVID-19 pandemic touch all part of world to the date more than fifteen millions of patients are infected by virus including about 1,388,926 deaths (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control an agency of the European Union). Morocco has put in place strict containment measures to control the disease and prevent the saturation of health systems. One of the great difficulties is to quickly identify asymptomatic and paucisymptomatic cases which function as an important vector of contagion. Anosmia and fever are one of revealed mode for the young patient but is not all the case. We report one case in the sense. A 40-year-old man without medical history was admitted in the hospital after complaining 3 days ago clinical symptoms of fever, cough, headache and anosmia. Immediately, the patient benefits of COVID-19 protocol, measure of fever, nasal swab and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Despite the negativity of PCR test of COVID-19, the patient was placed in isolation. Two days later, he presented a generalized seizures, then we performed a cerebral computed tomography scan (CT scan) which showed a bilateral frontal oedema. The cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed the presence of 4x4x4 cm well enhanced meningeal extra axial mass of the anterior skull base with peri-tumoral oedema corresponding to an olfactory groove meningioma. The tumour was totally resected through a left fronto-lateral approach. The postoperative courses were uneventful with the persistence of totally anosmia.

The Zap-X Radiosurgical System in the Treatment of Intracranial Tumors: A Technical Case Report.

BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE: The Zap-X system (Zap Surgical Systems Inc, San Carlos, California) is a radically new surgical robot designed for brain and head and neck radiosurgery. It represents the first new dedicated brain stereotactic radiosurgery platform in almost half a century optimizing the goals of safety, speed, and accuracy. The Zap-X system was used in a required Chinese National Medical Products Administration clinical study. In early January 2020, 2 patients were treated with the Zap-X robot prior to a national COVID-19 lockdown. Both were closely followed via clinical exam and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging. Prospectively collected data were used to generate this report. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: Two female patients, each harboring either a trigeminal schwannoma or petroclival meningioma, were treated with the Zap-X robot. Respective tumor volumes were 2.60 and 4.02 cm3. A radiation dose of 13 Gy was prescribed to the 50% isodose line. At 8 mo of follow-up, preoperative symptoms were either resolved or stable and MRI imaging demonstrated a 31% and 56% reduction in lesion volume, respectively. In both patients, symptoms improved, and tumor volumes decreased, whereas no major complication was observed. CONCLUSION: Given only 2 patients and short-term follow-up, any conclusions about the safety and efficacy of the Zap-X radiosurgery robot are preliminary. However, in the absence of any other published outcomes to date, this small case series may be of interest to many radiosurgical specialists.

Is the Myth of Left-Wing Authoritarianism Itself a Myth? (preprint)

Is left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) closer to a myth or a reality? Twelve studies test the empirical existence and theoretical relevance of LWA. Study 1 reveals that both conservative and liberal Americans identify a large number of left-wing authoritarians in their lives. In Study 2, participants explicitly rate items from a recently-developed LWA measure as valid measurements of authoritarianism. Studies 3-11 show that persons who score high on this same LWA scale possess the traits associated with models of authoritarianism (while controlling for political ideology): LWA is positively related to threat sensitivity across multiple areas, including general ecological threats (Study 3), COVID disease threat (Study 4), Belief in a Dangerous World (Study 5), and Trump threat (Study 6). Further, controlling for ideology, high-LWA persons show more support for restrictive political correctness norms (Study 7), rate African-Americans and Jews more negatively (Studies 8-9), and show more domain-specific dogmatism and attitude strength (Study 10). Study 11 reveals that the majority of the effects from Studies 3-10 hold when looking only within liberals, thus revealing these effects are about liberal authoritarianism. Study 12 uses the World Values Survey to provide evidence of Left-Wing Authoritarianism around the globe. Taken in total, this large array of triangulating evidence from 12 studies comprised of over 8,000 participants from the U.S. and over 66,000 participants world-wide strongly suggests that left-wing authoritarianism is much closer to a reality than a myth.