Diabetis vs Bariatric Surgery Outcome
People with diabetes may benefit less from bariatric surgery, compared with those without the disease, according to a retrospective review of patients receiving both sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass.
The difference was particularly pronounced and persistent for patients who had gastric bypass, Yingying Luo, MD, said during a virtual news conference held by the Endocrine Society. The study was slated for presentation during ENDO 2020, the society’s annual meeting, which was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our findings demonstrated that having bariatric surgery before developing diabetes may result in greater weight loss from the surgery, especially within the first 3 years after surgery and in patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery,” said Dr. Luo.
More than a third of U.S. adults have obesity, and more than half the population is overweight or has obesity, said Dr. Luo, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bariatric surgery not only reduces body weight, but also “can lead to remission of many metabolic disorders, including diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia,” said Dr. Luo, a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan’s division of metabolism, endocrinology, and diabetes. However, until now, it has not been known how diabetes interacts with bariatric surgery to affect weight loss outcomes.
To address that question, Dr. Luo and her colleagues looked at patients in the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Cohort who were at least 18 years old and had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40 kg/m2, or of more than 35 kg/m2 with comorbidities.
The researchers followed 380 patients who received gastric bypass and 334 who received sleeve gastrectomy for at least 5 years. Over time, sleeve gastrectomy became the predominant type of surgery conducted, noted Dr. Luo.
At baseline, and yearly for 5 years thereafter, the researchers recorded participants’ BMI as well as their lipid levels and other laboratory values. Medication use was also tracked. Patients with a diagnosis of diabetes also had their hemoglobin A1c levels recorded at each visit.
Rapid Home Screening Kits for COVID-19 Very Soon in India
Bengaluru-based startup firm Bione Ventures Pvt Ltd, a B2C platform for genetic and microbiome testing, has launched a rapid at-home screening kit for COVID-19 that delivers results within minutes. The company said it will make available the product for sale on their platform within a week.
“We are importing this screening kit from one of our partners in the US, which has secured USFDA approval for the product. In India, we have secured certification from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The screening kit can provide respite from the impending fear of the COVID-19 contagion,” Surendra K Chikara, a genomicist and founder of the company told DH.
The simple point-of-care home screening kit renders quick results, without having to step out in the wake of the lockdown. It will foster timely detection of the disease while acting as a preventive tool for others in proximity to the user, by isolating the carrier immediately, he said.
The kit is likely to be priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 depending upon the global supply, to increase its affordability for the masses, he said.
COVID-19 screening test kit is an IgG & IgM-based tool which takes 5-10 minutes to deliver the results. Upon receiving the kit, the user is required to clean the finger with an alcohol swab and use the lancet provided to finger-prick. The cartridge provided reads the results from the blood sample thus obtained, within 5-10 minutes, the company said in a statement.
Bione was founded in 2019 in Bengaluru by Dr Surendra K Chikara, who was among the pioneers in bringing NGS sequencing in India.
The company is well-equipped to supply 20,000 kits per week and intends to build its manufacturing facilities in the coming months to cater to the demand, he added.
For more details : Bione
Source : Deccan Herald
BCG Vaccine vs Corona Virus/COVID-19
Correlation between universal BCG vaccination policy and reduced morbidity and mortality for COVID-19: an epidemiological study
COVID-19 has spread to most countries in the world. Puzzlingly, the impact of the disease is different in different countries. These differences are attributed to differences in cultural norms, mitigation efforts, and health infrastructure. Here we propose that national differences in COVID-19 impact could be partially explained by the different national policies respect to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) childhood vaccination. BCG vaccination has been reported to offer broad protection to respiratory infections. We compared large number of countries BCG vaccination policies with the morbidity and mortality for COVID-19. We found that countries without universal policies of BCG vaccination (Italy, Nederland, USA) have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies. Countries that have a late start of universal BCG policy (Iran, 1984) had high mortality, consistent with the idea that BCG protects the vaccinated elderly population. We also found that BCG vaccination also reduced the number of reported COVID-19 cases in a country. The combination of reduced morbidity and mortality makes BCG vaccination a potential new tool in the fight against COVID-19.
Source : medRxiv
Guidelines for Dialysis in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic by Indian Government
Revised National Clinical Management Guidelines For COVID-19 by Indian Government
COVID-19: ASTCT Interim Guidelines for Transplantation
The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) has released interim guidelines for the care of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and cellular therapy patients in the light of the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
The guidelines, summarized briefly below, focus on diagnostic and treatment considerations, evaluation of patients prior to initializing HCT and cellular therapy, and cell donor evaluation. Much of the guideline relies upon recommendations developed by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ESBMT). These guidelines were updated on March 23.
The ASTCT document focuses on patient-treatment specifics and does not cover specific infection-prevention policies and procedures, instead suggesting that local and institutional guidelines, such as those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, should be followed. They did recommend that, in the local presence of COVID-19, “clinic visits that are not critical should be either deferred or substituted with telemedicine visits if deemed appropriate and feasible.”
Diagnostic Considerations
In any patient with upper or lower respiratory symptoms, obtain polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2, where possible, in addition to other respiratory virus PCR testing from any respiratory sample obtained, following CDC recommendations for sample collection and processing, which are continuously being updated on the CDC website.
These recommendations include nasal sampling, rather than oral sampling, and the discouraging of nasal washes where avoidable. If nasal washing is performed, it should be done with appropriate personal protective equipment as described by the CDC. The CDC has also provided additional infection prevention and control information for known and suspected COVID-19 patients in health care settings.
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