We sampled nasal-pharyngeal throat swabs from 96,123 asymptomatic individuals at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and generated 22,290 pools at collection, each containing samples from two to seven ...individuals. We detected SARS-CoV-2 in 24 pools, and confirmed the infection in 32 individuals after resampling and testing of 104 samples from positive pools. We completed the testing within 14 days. We would have required 64 days to complete the screening for the same number of individuals if we had based our testing strategy on individual testing. There was no difference in cycle threshold (Ct) values of pooled and individual samples. Thus, compared with individual sample testing, our approach did not compromise PCR sensitivity, but saved 77% of the resources. The present strategy might be applicable in settings, where there are shortages of reagents and the disease prevalence is low, but the demand for testing is high.
Comprehensive profiling of actionable mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is vital to guide targeted therapy, thereby improving the survival rate of patients. Despite the high incidence ...and mortality rate of NSCLC in Vietnam, the actionable mutation profiles of Vietnamese patients have not been thoroughly examined. Here, we employed massively parallel sequencing to identify alterations in major driver genes (EGFR, KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, ALK and ROS1) in 350 Vietnamese NSCLC patients. We showed that the Vietnamese NSCLC patients exhibited mutations most frequently in EGFR (35.4%) and KRAS (22.6%), followed by ALK (6.6%), ROS1 (3.1%), BRAF (2.3%) and NRAS (0.6%). Interestingly, the cohort of Vietnamese patients with advanced adenocarcinoma had higher prevalence of EGFR mutations than the Caucasian MSK-IMPACT cohort. Compared to the East Asian cohort, it had lower EGFR but higher KRAS mutation prevalence. We found that KRAS mutations were more commonly detected in male patients while EGFR mutations was more frequently found in female. Moreover, younger patients (<61 years) had higher genetic rearrangements in ALK or ROS1. In conclusions, our study revealed mutation profiles of 6 driver genes in the largest cohort of NSCLC patients in Vietnam to date, highlighting significant differences in mutation prevalence to other cohorts.
Display omitted
•Successfully doped V into TaON lattice to enhance its photocatalytic activity.•V dopant enhanced e−/h+ separation and prolonged the lifetime of the generated e− and h+.•The VTaON ...converted CO2 into CH4 and CO even under visible light.•The optimal V doping ratio enhancing photocatalytic activity of TaON was 1.5 wt%.
We successfully used V as dopant to enhance activity of TaON for visible light photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into valuable fuels. We investigated that the used V dopants existed in the TaON lattice and replaced several Ta elements in the lattice leading to decrease in the conduction band minimum and increase in the valence band maximum of the prepared VTaON. Hence, the band gap energy of the prepared VTaON was lower than that of prepared TaON or the prepared VTaON material could absorb significant amount of incident visible light for production of e− and h+ pairs, which participated in reactions with CO2 and H2O to generate CH4, CO, O2 and H2. We also investigated that the optimal V/Ta ratio (or optimal amount of V dopant) for maximum enhancing photocatalytic activity of TaON was 1.5 wt%. The prepared 1.5VTaON visible light photocatalytically converted CO2 with H2O to generate CH4, CO, O2 and H2 with generation rates of 673, 206, 1479 and 67 (µmol·g−1cat·h−1), respectively.
Abstract
Background
An endotracheal tube cuff pressure between 20 and 30 cmH2O is recommended to prevent ventilator-associated respiratory infection (VARI). We aimed to evaluate whether continuous ...cuff pressure control (CPC) was associated with reduced VARI incidence compared with intermittent CPC.
Methods
We conducted a multicenter open-label randomized controlled trial in intensive care unit (ICU) patients within 24 hours of intubation in Vietnam. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either continuous CPC using an automated electronic device or intermittent CPC using a manually hand-held manometer. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of VARI, evaluated by an independent reviewer blinded to the CPC allocation.
Results
We randomized 600 patients; 597 received the intervention or control and were included in the intention to treat analysis. Compared with intermittent CPC, continuous CPC did not reduce the proportion of patients with at least one episode of VARI (74/296 25% vs 69/301 23%; odds ratio OR 1.13; 95% confidence interval CI .77–1.67. There were no significant differences between continuous and intermittent CPC concerning the proportion of microbiologically confirmed VARI (OR 1.40; 95% CI .94–2.10), the proportion of intubated days without antimicrobials (relative proportion RP 0.99; 95% CI .87–1.12), rate of ICU discharge (cause-specific hazard ratio HR 0.95; 95% CI .78–1.16), cost of ICU stay (difference in transformed mean DTM 0.02; 95% CI −.05 to .08, cost of ICU antimicrobials (DTM 0.02; 95% CI −.25 to .28), cost of hospital stay (DTM 0.02; 95% CI −.04 to .08), and ICU mortality risk (OR 0.96; 95% CI .67–1.38).
Conclusions
Maintaining CPC through an automated electronic device did not reduce VARI incidence.
Clinical Trial Registration
NCT02966392.
The results of this randomised controlled trial demonstrate that continuous endotracheal cuff pressure control using an electronic automated device does not reduce the occurrence of ventilator-associated respiratory infection (VARI) in intubated patients compared with intermittent control.
In recent years, serosurveillance has gained momentum as a way of determining disease transmission and immunity in populations, particularly with respect to vaccine-preventable diseases. At the end ...of 2017, the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology held a meeting in Vietnam with national policy makers, researchers, and international experts to discuss current seroepidemiologic projects in Vietnam and future needs and plans for nationwide serosurveillance. This report summarizes the meeting and the plans that were discussed to set up nationwide serosurveillance in Vietnam.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Studies of successive vaccination suggest that immunological memory against past influenza viruses may limit responses to vaccines containing current strains. The impact of memory induced by prior ...infection is rarely considered and is difficult to ascertain, because infections are often subclinical. This study investigated influenza vaccination among adults from the Ha Nam cohort (Vietnam), who were purposefully selected to include 72 with and 28 without documented influenza A(H3N2) infection during the preceding 9 years (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 12621000110886). The primary outcome was the effect of prior influenza A(H3N2) infection on hemagglutinin-inhibiting antibody responses induced by a locally available influenza vaccine administered in November 2016. Baseline and postvaccination sera were titrated against 40 influenza A(H3N2) strains spanning 1968-2018. At each time point (baseline, day 14 and day 280), geometric mean antibody titers against 2008-2018 strains were higher among participants with recent infection (34 (29-40), 187 (154-227) and 86 (72-103)) than among participants without recent infection (19 (17-22), 91 (64-130) and 38 (30-49)). On days 14 and 280, mean titer rises against 2014-2018 strains were 6.1-fold (5.0- to 7.4-fold) and 2.6-fold (2.2- to 3.1-fold) for participants with recent infection versus 4.8-fold (3.5- to 6.7-fold) and 1.9-fold (1.5- to 2.3-fold) for those without. One of 72 vaccinees with recent infection versus 4 of 28 without developed symptomatic A(H3N2) infection in the season after vaccination (P = 0.021). The range of A(H3N2) viruses recognized by vaccine-induced antibodies was associated with the prior infection strain. These results suggest that recall of immunological memory induced by prior infection enhances antibody responses to inactivated influenza vaccine and is important to attain protective antibody titers.
During a 2023 outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae-associated community-acquired pneumonia among children in northern Vietnam, we analyzed M. pneumoniae isolated from nasopharyngeal samples. In almost ...half (6 of 13) of samples tested, we found known A2063G mutations (macrolide resistance) and a novel C2353T variant on the 23S rRNA gene.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Talaromyces marneffei
is a dimorphic fungus that causes substantial disease in Asia, especially among persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. In this randomized, controlled trial, ...initial therapy with amphotericin B was found to be superior to itraconazole.
The dimorphic fungus
Talaromyces
(previously
Penicillium
)
marneffei
causes a life-threatening mycosis in immunocompromised persons living in or traveling to Southeast Asia, China, and India.
1
Talaromycosis (previously penicilliosis) is a major cause of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–related death; its prevalence is surpassed only by the prevalence of tuberculosis and cryptococcosis,
2
and it leads to 4 to 15% of HIV-related hospital admissions in regions in which the disease is endemic.
3
–
7
Talaromycosis is increasingly diagnosed among patients who are not infected with HIV but who have other immunodeficiency conditions
8
and is reported to be the second most common cause of all . . .
This study aims to describe the diagnostic performance of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), alpha-fetoprotein L3 isoform (AFP-L3), protein induced by vitamin K absence II (PIVKA-II), and combined biomarkers ...for non-B non-C hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC). A total of 681 newly-diagnosed primary liver disease subjects (385 non-HCC, 296 HCC) who tested negativity for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C antibody (anti-HCV) enrolled in this study. At the cut-off point of 3.8 ng/mL, AFP helps to discriminate HCC from non-HCC with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.817 (95% confidence interval CI: 0.785-0.849). These values of AFP-L3 (cut-off 0.9%) and PIVKA-II (cut-off 57.7 mAU/mL) were 0.758 (95%CI: 0.725-0.791) and 0.866 (95%CI: 0.836-0.896), respectively. The Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) statistic identified the optimal model, including patients' age, aspartate aminotransferase, AFP, and PIVKA-II combination, which helps to classify HCC with better performance (AUC = 0.896, 95%CI: 0.872-0.920, P < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of the optimal model reached 81.1% (95%CI: 76.1-85.4) and 83.2% (95%CI: 78.9-86.9), respectively. Further analyses indicated that AFP and PIVKA-II markers and combined models have good-to-excellent performance detecting curative resected HCC, separating HCC from chronic hepatitis, dysplastic, and hyperplasia nodules.
In this study, InVO4 was effectively hybridized with g-C3N4 to create InVO4/g-C3N4 Z-scheme heterojunction. Ag metals were also successfully decorated on the InVO4/g-C3N4 to further improve its ...photocatalytic performance for tetracycline degradation. Scavenger experiments were conducted to investigate photocatalytic degradation mechanism of the synthesized materials. The characterization and experimental results showed that InVO4 and g-C3N4 would absorb incident visible light to induce electrons to their conduction band (CB) leaving holes at their valence band (VB). Then, photo-induced electrons in the InVO4 CB would move to the g-C3N4 VB to recombine with its holes leading to preservation of photo-induced electrons at the g-C3N4 CB, which has high reduction potential, and holes in the InVO4 VB, which has high oxidation potential, for effective degradation of tetracycline. When Ag metals were decorated on InVO4/g-C3N4, plasmon resonance of Ag would effectively increase light absorption and induce electron-hole separation of the InVO4 as well as the g-C3N4. The decorated Ag also acted as charge mediator to enhance electron transfer from the InVO4 CB and the g-C3N4 VB to improve electron-hole separation or photocatalytic efficiency of the InVO4/g-C3N4. Therefore, the Ag decorated on InVO4/g-C3N4 (AIC) presented novel photocatalytic performance for degradation of tetracycline. Finally, the regenerating experiment results indicated that the AIC could be effectively regenerated after being used.
Display omitted
•Successfully established InVO4/g-C3N4 Z-scheme heterojunction.•Successfully decorated Ag on InVO4/g-C3N4 to further enhance its photocatalytic activity.•The Ag decorated on InVO4/g-C3N4 showed novel photocatalytic activity for TC degradation.•The synthesized photocatalyst exhibited novel stability and regenerating ability.