Regarding this last, it has been linked to an increase in the vulnerability to HIV infection of mobile people and their families, moreover, there have been identified significant differences in the ...population regarding its HIV status, being HIV positive individuals more likely to leave their homeplaces, move from rural areas to cities and move permanently and cyclically when compared to HIV negative individuals, highlighting the impact on human migration patterns 2. In this context, the phenomenon of high scale migration across the Colombia-Venezuela border, mainly from Venezuelans to Colombia, due to the economic and social crisis of the Bolivarian country has started to generate questions about the potential impact on public health that could produce even in the short term 3. The increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS recently evidenced in this border region must be analyzed with caution, because of the fact that it is a region that have suffered similar situations before, as in 2003, when the number of cases exceeded the forecasts for that year in a similar way, but with a much lower migration across the Colombia-Venezuela border. ...another factor to take into account is the movement of Colombians to Venezuela, also evidenced in the migration reports, exceeding rarely even the number of Venezuelans entering Colombia, a phenomenon that increases the chance of HIV circulation among the neighboring regions.
Background
Chronic Chagas Cardiomyopathy (CCM) is characterized by a unique pathophysiology in which inflammatory, microvascular and neuroendocrine processes coalesce in the development of one of the ...most severe cardiomyopathies affecting humans. Despite significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in this disease, scarce information is available regarding microRNAs and clinical parameters of disease severity. We aimed to evaluate the association between circulating levels of six microRNAs with markers of myocardial injury and prognosis in this population.
Methods
Patients with CCM and reduced ejection fraction were included in a prospective exploratory cohort study. We assessed the association of natural log-transformed values of six circulating microRNAs (miR-34a-5p, miR-208a-5p, miR-185-5p, miR-223-5p, let-7d-5p, and miR-454-5p) with NT-proBNP levels and echocardiographic variables using linear regression models adjusted for potential confounders. By using Cox Proportional Hazard models, we examined whether levels of microRNAs could predict a composite outcome (CO), including all-cause mortality, cardiac transplantation, and implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Finally, for mRNAs showing significant associations, we predicted the target genes and performed pathway analyses using Targetscan and Reactome Pathway Browser.
Results
Seventy-four patients were included (59% males, median age: 64 years). After adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, and heart failure medications, only increasing miR-223-5p relative expression levels were significantly associated with better myocardial function markers, including left atrium area (Coef. -10.2; 95% CI -16.35; -4.09), end-systolic (Coef. -45.3; 95% CI -74.06; -16.61) and end-diastolic volumes (Coef. -46.1; 95% CI -81.99; -10.26) of the left ventricle. Moreover, we observed that higher miR-223-5p levels were associated with better left-ventricle ejection fraction and lower NT-proBNP levels. No associations were observed between the six microRNAs and the composite outcome. A total of 123 target genes for miR-223-5p were obtained. From these, several target pathways mainly related to signaling by receptor tyrosine kinases were identified.
Conclusions
The present study found an association between miR-223-5p and clinical parameters of CCM, with signaling pathways related to receptor tyrosine kinases as a potential mechanism linking low levels of miR-223-5p with CCM worsening.
Iron metabolism and anemia may play an important role in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate ...biomarkers of anemia and iron metabolism (hemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin, soluble transferrin receptor, hepcidin, haptoglobin, unsaturated iron-binding capacity, erythropoietin, free erythrocyte protoporphyrine, and erythrocyte indices) in patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and explored their prognostic value. Six bibliographic databases were searched up to August 3rd 2020. We included 189 unique studies, with data from 57,563 COVID-19 patients. Pooled mean hemoglobin and ferritin levels in COVID-19 patients across all ages were 129.7 g/L (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 128.51; 130.88) and 777.33 ng/mL (95% CI, 701.33; 852.77), respectively. Hemoglobin levels were lower with older age, higher percentage of subjects with diabetes, hypertension and overall comorbidities, and admitted to intensive care. Ferritin level increased with older age, increasing proportion of hypertensive study participants, and increasing proportion of mortality. Compared to moderate cases, severe COVID-19 cases had lower hemoglobin weighted mean difference (WMD), − 4.08 g/L (95% CI − 5.12; − 3.05) and red blood cell count WMD, − 0.16 × 10
12
/L (95% CI − 0.31; − 0.014), and higher ferritin WMD, − 473.25 ng/mL (95% CI 382.52; 563.98) and red cell distribution width WMD, 1.82% (95% CI 0.10; 3.55). A significant difference in mean ferritin levels of 606.37 ng/mL (95% CI 461.86; 750.88) was found between survivors and non-survivors, but not in hemoglobin levels. Future studies should explore the impact of iron metabolism and anemia in the pathophysiology, prognosis, and treatment of COVID-19.
Background
The most frequent site for the extranodal appearance of primary non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL) is the gastrointestinal (G.I.) tract. However, primary esophageal lymphoma is extremely rare. ...The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyze the demographics, clinical characteristics, histopathologic types, and long-term survival of patients with primary esophageal NHL registered in the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database.
Methods
Retrospective cohort study. Individuals with primary esophageal lymphoma (PEL) were identified using the international classification of disease for oncology, third edition histology codes. Patients were excluded if there was no microscopic confirmation of the neoplasm or if the diagnosis was made by autopsy or death certificate. Data on demographics, clinical characteristics, histopathology and survival were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method, life table, and cox proportional hazard models.
Results
179 patients were included (68% males, median age 66 years IQR 46–79). The overall survival at 1, 5 and 10 years was 65% (95% CI 57.9–72.3%), 49% (95% CI 42.1–57.3%), and 31% (95% CI 24.5–38.6%), respectively. On univariate analyses, individuals with extranodal marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) had a significantly higher overall survival when compared to patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (HR 0.29; 95% CI 0.11–0.73.
p
= 0.008). Furthermore, patients whose cancer was diagnosed after 1997 showed an improved overall survival (HR 0.40; 95% CI 0.26–0.61.
p
< 0.001) when compared to those diagnosed before 1997.
Conclusions
In this large population-based series, diagnosis after 1997 (year of rituximab approval by the FDA) and MZL subtype were associated with improved survival outcomes in patients with PEL.
Current evidence on COVID-19 prognostic models is inconsistent and clinical applicability remains controversial. We performed a systematic review to summarize and critically appraise the available ...studies that have developed, assessed and/or validated prognostic models of COVID-19 predicting health outcomes. We searched six bibliographic databases to identify published articles that investigated univariable and multivariable prognostic models predicting adverse outcomes in adult COVID-19 patients, including intensive care unit (ICU) admission, intubation, high-flow nasal therapy (HFNT), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and mortality. We identified and assessed 314 eligible articles from more than 40 countries, with 152 of these studies presenting mortality, 66 progression to severe or critical illness, 35 mortality and ICU admission combined, 17 ICU admission only, while the remaining 44 studies reported prediction models for mechanical ventilation (MV) or a combination of multiple outcomes. The sample size of included studies varied from 11 to 7,704,171 participants, with a mean age ranging from 18 to 93 years. There were 353 prognostic models investigated, with area under the curve (AUC) ranging from 0.44 to 0.99. A great proportion of studies (61.5%, 193 out of 314) performed internal or external validation or replication. In 312 (99.4%) studies, prognostic models were reported to be at high risk of bias due to uncertainties and challenges surrounding methodological rigor, sampling, handling of missing data, failure to deal with overfitting and heterogeneous definitions of COVID-19 and severity outcomes. While several clinical prognostic models for COVID-19 have been described in the literature, they are limited in generalizability and/or applicability due to deficiencies in addressing fundamental statistical and methodological concerns. Future large, multi-centric and well-designed prognostic prospective studies are needed to clarify remaining uncertainties.
Background
Chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCM) is characterized by a unique type of cardiac involvement. Few studies have characterized echocardiographic (Echo) transitions from the indeterminate ...Chagas disease (ChD) form to CCM. The objective of this study was to identify the best cutoffs in multiple Echo parameters, speckle tracking, and N‐terminal pro B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) to distinguish patients without CCM (stage A) vs patients with myocardial involvement (stages B, C, or D).
Methods
Cross‐sectional study conducted in 273 consecutive patients with different CCM stages. Echo parameters, NT‐proBNP, and other clinical variables were measured. Logistic regression models (dichotomized in stage A versus B, C, and D) adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, and NT‐proBNP were performed.
Results
Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV‐GLS), mitral flow E velocity, LV mass index, and NT‐proBNP identified early changes that differentiated stages A vs B, C, and D. The LV‐GLS with a cutoff −20.5% showed the highest performance (AUC 92.99%; accuracy 84.56% and negative predictive value (NPV) 88.82%), which improved when it was additionally adjusted by NT‐proBNP with a cutoff −20.0% (AUC 94.30%; accuracy 88.42% and NPV 93.55%).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that Echo parameters and NT‐proBNP may be used as diagnostic variables in detecting the onset of myocardial alterations in patients with the indeterminate stage of ChD. LV‐GLS was the more accurate measurement regarding stage A differentiation from the stages B, C, and D. Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to validate these findings.
Hyperglycemia-associated chorea-ballism (HCB) is an infrequent neurological syndrome whose pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Positron emission tomography (PET) studies have offered valuable ...information regarding regional glucose metabolism. The studies included were published between 1980-2017 and reported demographic, clinical, laboratory and imaging data from patients with HCB in whom a PET scan had been performed. Eleven patients were evaluated (women 82%, Asian origin 91%, mean age 71 years). The main findings were an increase in glucose metabolism at the contralateral motor cortex related to recent episodes of hemiballism-hemichorea in 2 patients, and an altered metabolism in the affected basal ganglia in all of them: decreased in 10 patients (91%) and increased in 1 (9%). However during the acute period the patients showed only an increased metabolism, or even no changes. Contrary to what has previously been suggested in a metabolic failure hypothesis, changes in glucose metabolism in the basal ganglia may not be a key factor in the pathogenesis of HCB, and may potentially be a direct result of histological changes such as cellular ischemia and gliosis related to HCB development.
To analyze the association of circulating dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels with cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCM) diagnosis.
DHEA-S is among ...the main endogenous steroid hormones. Some studies have suggested a relevant role of this hormone in infections and the setting of CCM. Nevertheless, no study has evaluated the prognostic role of DHEA-S in CCM patients.
Prospective cohort study. Patients with CCM and reduced ejection fraction were included. We explored the association of DHEA-S levels with NT-proBNP levels and echocardiographic variables using linear regression models. Next, by using Cox Proportional Hazard models, we examined whether levels of DHEA-S could predict a composite outcome (CO) including all-cause mortality, cardiac transplantation, and implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).
Seventy-four patients were included (59% males, median age: 64 years). After adjustment for confounding factors, high DHEA-S levels were associated with better LVEF, lower left atrium volume, end-systolic volume of the left ventricle and lower NT-proBNP levels. 43% of patients experienced the CO during a median follow-up of 40 months. Increased levels of DHEA-S were associated with a lower risk of developing the CO (HR 0.43; 95%CI 0.21-0.86). Finally, adding DHEA-S to the multivariate model did not improve the prediction of the CO, but substituting NT-proBNP in the model with DHEA-S showed similar performance.
In patients with CCM, higher DHEA-S levels were associated with lower mortality, heart transplantation, and LVAD implantation. Further larger studies are required to confirm our results and assess causality.
Central illustration. In the present study, lower circulating dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels were associated with a higher risk of adverse major cardiovascular outcomes (cardiovascular mortality, LVAD implantation, and heart transplantation) in patients with Chronic Chagas Cardiomyopathy (CCM). Several mechanisms may explain the potential protective role of DHEA-S in CCM, either by direct or indirect processes. T. cruzi can impair dehydroepiandrosterone and DHEA-S synthesis in the adrenal glands by direct invasion of the adrenal tissue and/or by promoting the release of proinflammatory cytokines such as TGF-β. Display omitted
•Chronic Chagas Cardiomyopathy (CCM) is characterized by a high morbimortality.•In CCM patients, DHEA-S levels were associated with better LVEF and lower NT-proBNP.•Increased DHEA-S levels were associated with a lower risk of mortality.•DHEA-S predictive value was independent of LVEF and NT-proBNP.•DHEA-S may be useful as a biomarker for mortality prediction in CCM patients.
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