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Introduction: Telemedicine (TM) and teleconsultation services flourished during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission to avoid COVID-19 infection and physical contact. Many physicians switched to the virtual treatment mode and nearly all types of health disciplines were covered. Through this systematic review, the authors tried to explore the strengths and weaknesses of TM, identify the barriers to adopting TM by population, and explain the limitations of this healthcare delivery model. Methods and results: In this systematic review, 28 studies were included (>53% high-quality studies) as eligible, where nearly 75% (n=21) of the studies were from India, and the remaining 25% (n=7) were from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Advice related to cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurological diseases were the most common among the health disciplines in which TM was used. A peak in teleconsultation was observed during the high transmission phase of COVID-19, although major queries were associated with existing health complications and comorbidities. Conclusion: Other than a few concerns regarding connectivity, privacy, and diagnosis, TM was in fact affordable, timesaving, feasible, and accurate, which ensured a highly satisfying experience among the participants (>80%).
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[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.19487.].
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INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to determine whether remdesivir administration for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with reducing deaths among COVID-19 hospitalized patients. METHODOLOGY: It was a retrospective study, and the data was acquired at Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. All patients admitted between February and May 2021 with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) infection confirmed by polymerase chain reaction testing from nasopharyngeal samples were included in the study, including those who received at least five-day treatment of remdesivir and who did not receive even a single dose of remdesivir. RESULTS: Data of overall 174 patients were used, out of which 71 (40.80%) received remdesivir. After propensity score matching, 71 patients in the remdesivir group were successfully matched with the non-remdesivir patients on the basis of age, gender, and disease severity. Results of multivariable logistic regression showed that there is no significant difference in deaths between patients who received remdesivir and patients who did not receive remdesivir (p-value=0.122). However, the length of hospital stay was significantly lower in the remdesivir group than in the control group (p-value=0.001). CONCLUSION: Results of this study can provide evidence that remdesivir can be efficient in reducing the duration of COVID-19 illness, and a five-day course of treatment is sufficient for patients to get clinical benefits.
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95% of the body's testosterone is produced by the Leydig Cells (LCs) in adult testis, and LC functional degradation can cause testosterone deficiency ultimately leading towards hypogonadism. The transplantation of LCs derived from stem cells is a very promising therapy to overcome the testosterone deficiency. The isolated umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UMSCs) were identified by flow cytometry and adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation. Western blotting and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used for the differentiated Leydig-like cell identification. The comparisons of the testosterone levels, gene expression levels, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) productions were performed through radioimmunoassay, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and cAMP assay kit, respectively. Here, it is stated that our isolated human UMSCs, which could positively express CD29, CD44, CD59, CD90, CD105, and CD166 but negatively express CD34 as well as could be differentiated into adipocytes and osteocytes, could be differentiated into Leydig-like cells (UMSC-LCs) using a novel differentiation method based on molecular compounds. The enrichment UMSC-LCs could secrete testosterone into the medium supernatant and produce considerable cAMP at the stimulation of luteinizing hormone (LH), and positively expressed LC lineage-typical markers LHCGR, SCARB1, SATR, CYP11A1, CYP17A1, HSD3B1, HSD17B3, and SF-1 as well as negatively expressed mesenchymal stem cell typical markers CD29, CD44, and CD105. The expression levels of NR3C4, PDGFRA, and NR3A1 in UMSC-LCs were higher than those of UMSCs and were comparable with LCs. These results illuminated that UMSCs could be differentiated into Leydig-like cells using the defined molecular compounds, which might further support MSC-derived Leydig cell transplantation therapy for testosterone insufficiency.
