RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swab sampling for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnosis may lead to release of particles of varying sizes and increase the exposure risk for health care workers (HCWs). However, there is limited evidence for effective methods to reduce occupational exposure from NP and OP swab sampling. This study aimed to reduce droplet-forming responses (DFRs) and the related exposure risk of NP and OP swab sampling by administering 10% lidocaine spray (LS) to the NP and OP areas prior to conducting swab tests. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with 100 patients who presented to our tertiary care hospital with symptoms of COVID-19 between December 1 and 15, 2020. First, NP and OP swabbings were performed on each patient. Thereafter, LS was applied to the OP and NP regions, and the swab samples were taken once again. Frequency of DFRs and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results before and after LS application were recorded for comparison. In addition, the cycle threshold (Ct) was used as a proxy indicator for SARS-CoV-2 viral load in COVID-19 positive cases. FINDINGS: Significant differences in OP DFR frequencies before and after LS intervention were found (37% and 9%, respectively), as well as before and after NP DFR (31% and 18%, respectively). The mean Ct values for the positive samples did not differ before and after applying LS. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that applying LS to the OP and NP area prior to swab testing reduces DFR frequencies without affecting (RT-PCR) test results for SARS-CoV-2 and may increase patient and practitioner comfort.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Pessoal de Saúde , Humanos , Nasofaringe , SARS-CoV-2 , Manejo de EspécimesRESUMO
Altered activity of the globus pallidus externus (GPe) is responsible for at least part of the cognitive and motor symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that bilateral globus pallidus (GP; equivalent of GPe in primates) deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves cognitive and motor symptoms in the first transgenic rat model of HD (tgHD rats). GP DBS with clinically relevant stimulation parameters resulted in a significant improvement of cognitive dysfunction and reduced the number of choreiform movements. This data indicate that GPe DBS can be used to treat cognitive and motor dysfunction in HD.
Assuntos
Estimulação Encefálica Profunda/métodos , Globo Pálido/fisiopatologia , Doença de Huntington/terapia , Vias Neurais/fisiopatologia , Recuperação de Função Fisiológica , Animais , Animais Geneticamente Modificados , Cognição , Transtornos Cognitivos/etiologia , Transtornos Cognitivos/fisiopatologia , Transtornos Cognitivos/terapia , Estimulação Encefálica Profunda/normas , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Proteína Huntingtina , Doença de Huntington/complicações , Doença de Huntington/fisiopatologia , Movimento/fisiologia , Mutação , Neostriado/fisiopatologia , Proteínas do Tecido Nervoso/genética , Proteínas Nucleares/genética , Ratos , Resultado do TratamentoRESUMO
We tested the hypothesis that a recently developed transgenic rat model of Huntington's disease (tgHD rats) showed an age-and genotype-dependent change in psychomotor performance and in the frequency of choreiform movements similar to HD patients. Wild type and tgHD (homozygotic and heterozygotic) rats were behaviorally tested at an age of 15 and 20 months. Our results show that tgHD rats exhibit an age-, and genotype-dependent deterioration of the psychomotor performance and choreiform symptoms, closely mimicking the clinical time course changes of psychomotor symptoms of HD patients. These data provide further experimental evidence that the tgHD rat can be considered as a relevant animal model of HD.
