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Food antioxidants can prevent or/and delay free radical formation which is responsible for oxidative stress. Nowadays, natural remedy becomes the highest concern in many countries, as well as discouraging the intake of synthetic counterparts to avoid the burden of side effects on human health. Regular intake of dietary antioxidants could help to improve the fitness of the body, and subsequently make the body more competitive in its fight against diseases through enhanced immune response. The present review thus summarised recent knowledge on the dietary source of antioxidants, and also mechanism of action and functionalities on human health benefits. Due to the proven ability to restore mitochondrial function and cellular redox balance, food antioxidants also have great potential as natural therapies against COVID-19. However, the numbers of trials are still limited. There must be more tests with the hope that these compounds will mitigate the COVID-19 and similar outbreaks in the future © All Rights Reserved
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Introduction: In the current pandemic, many unprecedented challenges have been observed at the resource poor settings such as inadequate airport quarantine facilities and lack of highly sensitive but rapid and cost-effective testing of COVID-19. Objective(s): To present a cost-effective and timely alternative diagnostic and quarantine facility for the incoming travelers in Bangladesh. Method(s): The cross-sectional serosurvey data has been collected from impoverished inbound travelers from different countries who were quarantined in Hajj camp (a government facility near the airport reserved for muslim pilgrims) with full coverage of food and lodging at subsidized cost and free testing by GeneXpert, which is capable of Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) for both COVID-19 and TB. Result(s): Most of our study participants were male (74.32%) and the predominant age group was 20-40 years. Total SARS-COV-2 positive patients were 106 (7.98%) among 1328 participants out of which 72 were male. The highest infection rate was observed in travelers from Singapore (n=16/71, 22.53%) followed by USA and Malaysia. The result processing time was only 1 hour for the NAAT and 1222 participants (92%) were able to travel to their destinations on the same day. The positive cases were kept in quarantine for further assessment. Conclusion(s): Our study findings support the equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics like NAAT for disadvantaged group and optimum use of health system resources. It also shows the potential to equip hard to reach laboratory facilities by GeneXpert for both TB and COVID-19 diagnostics specially where the double burden exists.
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Purpose: As hyperinflammation is recognized as a driver of severe COVID-19 disease, checking markers of inflammation is gaining more attention. Our study aimed to evaluate the utility of cost-effective hemogram-derived ratios in predicting intensive care unit (ICU) admission in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included hospitalized COVID-19 patients from four dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Data on demographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters and survival outcomes were analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the significance of each hemogram-derived ratio in predicting ICU admission. Results: Of 442 included patients, 98 (22.17%) required ICU admission. At the time of admission, patients requiring ICU had a higher neutrophil count and lower lymphocyte and platelet counts than patients not requiring ICU. Peripheral capillary oxygen saturation at admission was significantly lower in those who subsequently required ICU admission. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil-to-platelet ratio, and systemic immune-inflammation index were significant predictors of ICU admission. Conclusion: Hemogram-derived ratios can be an effective tool in facilitating the early categorization of at-risk patients, enabling timely measures to be taken early in the disease course.
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Background: To address the problem of resource limitation, biomarkers having a potential for mortality prediction are urgently required. This study was designed to evaluate whether hemogram-derived ratios could predict in-hospital deaths in COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included hospitalized COVID-19 patients from four COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Data on clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, and survival outcomes were analyzed. Logistic regression models were fitted to identify the predictors of in-hospital death. Results: Out of 442 patients, 55 (12.44%) suffered in-hospital death. The proportion of male was higher in nonsurvivor group (61.8%). The mean age was higher in nonsurvivors (69 ± 13 vs. 59 ± 14 years, p < 0.001). Compared to survivors, nonsurvivors exhibited higher frequency of comorbidities, such as chronic kidney disease (34.5% vs. 15.2%, p ≤ 0.001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (23.6% vs. 10.6%, p = 0.011), ischemic heart disease (41.8% vs. 19.4%, p < 0.001), and diabetes mellitus (76.4% vs. 61.8%, p = 0.05). Leukocytosis and lymphocytopenia were more prevalent in nonsurvivors (p < 0.05). Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived NLR (d-NLR), and neutrophil-to-platelet ratio (NPR) were significantly higher in nonsurvivors (p < 0.05). After adjusting for potential covariates, NLR (odds ratio [OR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.009-1.08), d-NLR (OR 1.08; 95% CI 1.006-1.14), and NPR (OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.09-1.32) have been found to be significant predictors of mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The optimal cut-off points for NLR, d-NLR, and NPR for prediction of in-hospital mortality for COVID-19 patients were 7.57, 5.52 and 3.87, respectively. Conclusion: Initial assessment of NLR, d-NLR, and NPR values at hospital admission is of good prognostic value for predicting mortality of patients with COVID-19.