The impact of education level and socioeconomic status on the association between depressive symptoms and memory in an older population in Latin America: An exploratory analysis from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-BRAZIL).

Purpose: The globally increasing older population raises concerns about age-related conditions, including cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms. In Latin America, nearly one-third of the population is affected by either of these conditions. However, data investigating the association between cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms, particularly in Brazil, are limited to small-scale studies that have not carefully examined the critical effects of variables such as education level and socioeconomic status on this relationship. We aimed at exploring this association in a representative population-based cohort. Methods: We used the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-BRAZIL) database to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment in Brazilian older adults, adjusted for potential confounders. Direct acyclic graphs and multivariable linear regression were used to build our model. Depressive symptoms were measured using a short version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Scale (CES D-8), and combined memory recall test as a surrogate of cognitive impairment. Results: The study included 8280 participants. Only education level was identified as a confounder for the relationship between memory loss and depressive symptoms. After adjusting for age, sex, and education level, there was strong evidence for a negative association between depressive symptoms and memory performance. For every 5-unit increase in the CES D-8 score, there was a reduction in memory capacity, translating to a loss of approximately one word in the combined words recall test (mean - 0.18, 95% CI -0.22; -0.15, P < 0.001). In addition, we found strong evidence for an interaction between socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms. Subjects belonging to medium socioeconomic status (SES) showed more pronounced memory decline, when compared to those with lower SES (mean - 0.28, 95% CI -0.42 to -0.14, P < 0.001). Conclusions: In adults aged over 50, after adjusting for sex, age, and educational level, a 5-unit increase in CES D-8 score is associated with loss of one point in the combined memory recall test. This association seems to be confounded by educational level and significantly modified by socioeconomic status.

Malignancy diseases and kidneys: A nephrologist prospect and updated review.

Acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic renal failure, and tubular abnormalities represent the kidney disease spectrum of malignancy. Prompt diagnosis and treatment may prevent or reverse these complications. The pathogenesis of AKI in cancer is multifactorial. AKI affects outcomes in cancer, oncological therapy withdrawal, increased hospitalization rate, and hospital stay. Renal function derangement can be recovered with early detection and targeted therapy of cancers. Identifying patients at higher risk of renal damage and implementing preventive measures without sacrificing the benefits of oncological therapy improve survival. Multidisciplinary approaches, such as relieving obstruction, hydration, etc., are required to minimize the kidney injury rate. Different keywords, texts, and phrases were used to search Google, EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar for related original and review articles that serve the article's aim well. In this nonsystematic article, we aimed to review the published data on cancer-associated kidney complications, their pathogenesis, management, prevention, and the latest updates. Kidney involvement in cancer occurs due to tumor therapy, direct kidney invasion by tumor, or tumor complications. Early diagnosis and therapy improve the survival rate. Pathogenesis of cancer-related kidney involvement is different and complicated. Clinicians' awareness of all the potential causes of cancer-related complications is essential, and a kidney biopsy should be conducted to confirm the kidney pathologies. Chronic kidney disease is a known complication in malignancy and therapies. Hence, avoiding nephrotoxic drugs, dose standardization, and early cancer detection are mandatory measures to prevent renal involvement.

Clinical, Radiological, and Outcome Characteristics of Acute Pulmonary Embolism: A 5-year Experience from an Academic Tertiary Center.

BACKGROUND: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and potentially life-threatening condition. This comprehensive study from a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country aimed to evaluate the clinical, radiological, and outcome characteristics associated with acute PE. METHODS: This retrospective observational study analyzed data of patients with confirmed acute PE who were admitted to the largest academic tertiary center in the State of Qatar from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2018. Data on the clinical presentation, radiologic, and echocardiographic findings, as well as outcomes were collected. RESULTS: A total of 436 patients were diagnosed with acute PE during the study period (male, 53%). Approximately 56% of the patients were < 50 years old at presentation, with a median age of 47 years. In approximately 69% of cases, the PE occurred outside the hospital. The main associated comorbidities were obesity (34.6%), hypertension (29.4%), and diabetes (25%). Immobilization (25.9%) and recent surgery (20.6%) were the most common risk factors. The most frequent presenting symptom was dyspnea (39.5%), and the most frequent signs were tachycardia (49.8%) and tachypnea (45%). Cardiac arrest was the initial presentation in 2.2% of cases. Chest X-ray findings were normal in 41%. On computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), 41.3% of the patients had segmental PE, 37.1% had central PE, and 64.1% had bilateral PE. The main electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormality was sinus tachycardia (98%). In patients who underwent echocardiography, right ventricular (RV) enlargement was the main echocardiographic finding (36.4%). Low-, intermediate-, and high-risk PE constituted 49.8%, 31.4%, and 18.8% of the cases, respectively. Thrombolysis was prescribed in 8.3% of the total and 24.4% of the high-risk PE cases. Complications of PE and its treatment (from admission up to 6 months post-discharge) included minor bleeding (14%), major bleeding (5%), PE recurrence (4.8%), and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) (5%). A total of 15 (3.4%) patients died from PE. CONCLUSIONS: Acute PE can manifest with complex and variable clinical and radiological syndromes. Striking findings in this study are the younger age of acute PE occurrence and the low PE-related mortality rate.

An unusual etiology of bilateral pulmonary nodules: Another challenge of hide and seek.

An elderly gentleman presented with bilateral pulmonary nodules found incidentally during the workup of acute pancreatitis. He did not have any respiratory or urogenital symptoms. A biopsy of the lung nodule revealed myxoid mesenchymal neoplasm of extraosseous origin. As the patient was asymptomatic, only the increased uptake in the penile shaft base on the whole-body PET-CT study yielded a diagnosis of primary penile chondrosarcoma after biopsy. A rare presentation of chondrosarcoma in an elderly gentleman highlighting the importance of obtaining a histopathological specimen, as the prognosis of metastatic diseases is widely variable.

Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis masquerading as chest wall malignancy: Just never ceases to surprise!

With the emergence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, we witnessed a higher incidence of disseminated and extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The infection sites commonly include lymph nodes, pleura, and osteoarticular areas, although any organ can be involved. Given the atypical presentation of the extrapulmonary disease, it poses a significant diagnostic challenge for the physicians; therefore, a high index of suspicion should be maintained, particularly where tuberculosis is endemic. Here we present a case of isolated chest wall tuberculosis in an immunocompetent patient.

Psychological and Coping Strategies Related to Home Isolation and Social Distancing in Children and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: In December 2019, a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. It rapidly spread due to human-to-human transmission, resulting in a global pandemic. Nearly every country, including Qatar, has established guidelines and regulations to limit the spread of the virus and to preserve public health. However, these procedures have been associated with negative effects on the psychological and intellectual well-being of individuals, including children and adolescents. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the psychological influence of home isolation and social distancing on children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar, and the strategies used to cope with these measures. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was undertaken using an online questionnaire administered through SMS text messaging. All home-isolated children and adolescents registered at the Primary Health Care Corporation aged 7-18 years were invited to participate in the study. Children and adolescents with intellectual disadvantages were excluded. A P value of .05 (two-tailed) was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Data were collected from 6608 participants from June 23 to July 18, 2020. Nearly all participants adhered to the official regulations during the period of home isolation and social distancing; however, 69.1% (n=4568) of parents believed their children were vulnerable to the virus compared to 25% (n=1652) who expressed they were not vulnerable at all. Higher levels of anger, depression, and general anxiety were prevalent among 1.3% (n=84), 3.9% (n=260), and 1.6% (n=104) of participants, respectively. The mean score for the emotional constructs anger and depression decreased with increased compliance with regulations (P=.04 and P=.11, respectively). The differences in mean score for all psychological and coping strategies used among participants across the 3 levels of vulnerability to SARS-CoV-2 were statistically significant. The mean score varied little with increasing reported vulnerability to the virus. This mild variation can make a difference when the sample size is large, as is the case in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Screening for psychological and social disruptions is important for the development of strategies by schools and health care providers to assess and monitor behavioral changes and negative psychological impact during post-COVID-19 reintegration. Participants experiencing higher levels of anxiety should be given more attention during reintegration and transitional phases in schools. Although electronic devices and social media platforms may have lowered anxiety levels in some cases, it is important to address how they are used and how content is tailored to children and adolescents. It is also important to maintain an active lifestyle for children and young persons, and encourage them not to neglect their physical health, as this promotes a better psychological state of mind.

Estimating point prevalence of COVID-19 in Qatar's primary care registered population: an RT-PCR drive-through study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The first COVID-19 cases in Qatar were reported on 29 February 2020. As the epidemic progresses, essential epidemiological information is needed to facilitate monitoring of COVID-19 in the population and plan the pandemic response in Qatar. AIM: The primary aim of this cross-sectional study is to estimate the point prevalence of COVID-19 in Qatar's primary care registered population. DESIGN & SETTING: A cross-sectional study design will be utilised. One publicly funded health centre from each of three geographical regions in Qatar will be identified as a study location and set up to facilitate a drive-through for the study. METHOD: Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) is publicly funded and the largest primary care provider in Qatar. The study will include randomly selected individuals from the full list of PHCC's registered population on its electronic medical records system. The sample selection will be done using a proportional to size sampling technique stratified by age, sex, and nationality representative of the overall PHCC-registered population. Considering the total population registered in PHCC, a sample of 2080 is proposed. A questionnaire will be administered to collect sociodemographic information, and nasal and throat swab samples will be taken. Data will be analysed to report overall symptomatic and asymptomatic point prevalence of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: This study, with the help of a randomly selected representative sample from Qatar's primary care registered population, will provide results that can be applied to the entire population. This study design will closely represent a real-world scenario of the outbreak and is likely to provide important data to guide COVID-19 pandemic planning and response in Qatar.

Role of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy in the Rapid Diagnosis of Sputum Smear-negative Disseminated Tuberculosis with Pulmonary Miliary Infiltrates.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the role of bronchoscopy-related procedures such as bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), bronchial wash (BW), bronchial brush (B brush), transbronchial biopsy (TBB), and post-bronchoscopy sputum (PBS), alone or in combination, in the rapid diagnosis of negative sputum smear disseminated tuberculosis (TB). METHODS: We performed a secondary post hoc analysis of data collected from our previous study entitled "Disseminated tuberculosis among adult patients admitted to Hamad General Hospital, Qatar: A five-year hospital-based study" with a modified objective. RESULTS: We identified 27 patients. BAL fluid was positive for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear in 7/27 (25.9%) patients and were culture-positive for Myobacterium tuberculosis in 17/27 (63.0%) cases, while BW collections were smear-positive in 9/27 (33.3%) cases and culture-positive for M. tuberculosis in 18/27 (66.7%) cases. TBB showed caseating granulomas in 10/16 (62.5%) cases and one case of non-caseating granuloma (6.3%). PBS was positive for AFB in 4/8 (50.0%) patients. The combination of these procedures enabled us to diagnose disseminated TB rapidly in 22 (81.5%) cases. CONCLUSIONS: Bronchoscopy proved to be an effective method for the rapid diagnosis of disseminated TB in patients in whom sputum smear microscopy was negative.