Objectives
The aim of this study was to describe findings from lung ultrasound (LUS) and computed tomography (CT) in health professionals with coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia and to evaluate the ...associations of the findings of both tests.
Methods
This cross‐sectional observational study evaluated 45 health professionals who were initially seen in screening tents and had a diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 as confirmed by a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and lung involvement diagnosed by LUS. Subsequently, these individuals were admitted to the hospital, where chest CT was performed. Aeration scores were obtained for the LUS examinations based on the following findings: more than 2 B‐lines, coalescent B‐lines, and subpleural consolidations. A subjective assessment of the extent of lung disease on CT was performed on the basis of the percentage of lung parenchyma involvement as follows: 25% or less, 25% to 50%, and greater than 50%.
Results
Regarding LUS signs, more than 2 B‐lines, coalescent B‐lines, and subpleural consolidations were present in 73.3%, 68.2%, and 24.4% of cases, respectively. The main findings on CT were ground glass opacities, a crazy‐paving pattern, and consolidations (66.7%, 20%, and 20% of cases); 17.8% of cases had examinations without abnormalities. Patients with more than 2 B‐lines on LUS had more ground glass opacity areas on CT (P = .0007), whereas patients with subpleural consolidations on LUS had more consolidations on CT (P < .0001). In addition, patients with higher LUS aeration scores had more extensive disease on CT (P < .0001).
Conclusions
Lung ultrasound can detect lung injury even in the presence of normal CT results. There are associations between the abnormalities detected by both methods, and a relationship also exists between LUS aeration scores and the disease extent on CT.
Despite the high impact of insider attacks, findings show that many organizations have no insider threat program in place, and most programs that do exist have serious deciencies (INSA 2013). ...Mandates for US Government organizations and their contractors to build such programs attest to their importance (Office of the Press Secretary 2011), but determining how insider threat countermeasures reduce organizational risk is difficult to ascertain (US GAO 2015). Negative unintended consequences of controls have the potential to exacerbate rather than mitigate the problem (Moore et al. 2015a, b). Furthermore, the tendency of organizations to view insider threats as a technology problem, and the stove-piped nature of their processes, has made it difcult for them to deal effectively with the socio-technical nature of the problem (INSA 2013).
Nitric oxide (NO) is an important product of eosinophilic metabolism, and its increase is associated with bronchial remodeling and airway hyperresponsiveness. Fractional exhaled NO (FENO) in the ...expired air of patients with suspected or diagnosed asthma has been used as a marker for eosinophilic inflammation. This cohort study included asthmatic patients classified under steps 3, 4, or 5 of the global strategy for asthma management and prevention. In the morning of the same day, all patients underwent blood collection for eosinophil counts, followed by FENO measurement and spirometry. We considered 2 groups based on the bronchodilation (BD) response on spirometry (>10% of FVC or FEV1): positive (BD+) and negative (BD-). Differences between the 2 groups were analyzed for demographic features, FENO values, and predictive correlations between FENO and BD. Both groups of patients showed an increase in the eosinophil count (BD+, P = .03; BD-, P = .04) and FENO values (P = .015 for both) with an increase in the asthma severity from step 3 to step 5 of the global strategy for asthma management and prevention. The correlations of FENO and eosinophils as well as FENO values and BD + were 0.127 (95% confidence interval,-0.269 to -0.486) and 0.696 (95% confidence interval, 0.246-0.899; P = .007), respectively. Measuring FENO levels may be useful for identifying patients with BD+.
Background: Studies in clinical and experimental inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have shown disturbances in intestinal bacterial flora with an increase in potentially pathogenic and a decrease in ...protective organisms. It was hypothesized that Lactobacillus plantarum species 299 (LP299), a probiotic, would ameliorate colitis and improve intestinal permeability in experimental colitis. This study investigated the effect of LP299 in the trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid/ethanol (TNBS/E) rat model of colitis. Methods: Twelve week old male Wistar rats were randomized to receive rectal instillates of either TNBS/E (n = 48) or saline (n = 16). For the next 7 days the animals were gavaged with 2.5 ml of oat fibre suspension containing 109 colony forming units (CFU) of LP299 (LP299/OF), oat fibre suspension alone (OF) or no treatment. At the end of the experiment rats received radiolabelled polyethylene glycol and urine was collected for 24 h to assess permeability. Animals were then anaesthetized and colons were harvested for colon macroscopic scoring (CMS). Results: TNBS/E per rectum resulted in a greater CMS (P < 0.001) and gut permeability (P = 0.006) than saline. Administration of LP299/OF or oat fibre alone did not result in a reduction in CMS or gut permeability when compared to colitic controls. Conclusions: LP299/OF, when administered after TNBS instillation, does not reduce the severity of colitis or improve gut permeability in this hapten model of colitis.
Capitalizing on the optical absorption of hemoglobin, photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is uniquely capable of anatomical and functional characterization of the intact microcirculation in vivo. However, ...PAM of the metabolic rate of oxygen (MRO
) at the microscopic level remains an unmet challenge, mainly due to the inability to simultaneously quantify microvascular diameter, oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (sO
), and blood flow at the same spatial scale. To fill this technical gap, we have developed a multi-parametric PAM platform. By analyzing both the sO
-encoded spectral dependence and the flow-induced temporal decorrelation of photoacoustic signals generated by the raster-scanned mouse ear vasculature, we demonstrated-for the first time-simultaneous wide-field PAM of all three parameters down to the capillary level in vivo.
RNA interference (RNAi) is heritable in Caenorhabditis elegans; the progeny of C. elegans exposed to dsRNA inherit the ability to silence genes that were targeted by RNAi in the previous generation. ...Here we investigate the mechanism of RNAi inheritance in C. elegans. We show that exposure of animals to dsRNA results in the heritable expression of siRNAs and the heritable deposition of histone 3 lysine 9 methylation (H3K9me) marks in progeny. siRNAs are detectable before the appearance of H3K9me marks, suggesting that chromatin marks are not directly inherited but, rather, reestablished in inheriting progeny. Interestingly, H3K9me marks appear more prominently in inheriting progeny than in animals directly exposed to dsRNA, suggesting that germ-line transmission of silencing signals may enhance the efficiency of siRNA-directed H3K9me. Finally, we show that the nuclear RNAi (Nrde) pathway maintains heritable RNAi silencing in C. elegans. The Argonaute (Ago) NRDE-3 associates with heritable siRNAs and, acting in conjunction with the nuclear RNAi factors NRDE-1, NRDE-2, and NRDE-4, promotes siRNA expression in inheriting progeny. These results demonstrate that siRNA expression is heritable in C. elegans and define an RNAi pathway that promotes the maintenance of RNAi silencing and siRNA expression in the progeny of animals exposed to dsRNA.
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