Colorectal Cancer
COVID-19 : Hyperglycemia Predicts Death Even in Patients Without DM
Nearly half of hospitalized COVID-19 patients without a prior diabetes diagnosis have hyperglycemia, and the latter is an independent predictor of mortality at 28 days, new research indicates.
The findings, from a retrospective analysis of 605 patients with COVID-19 seen at two hospitals in Wuhan, China, were published online July 10 in Diabetologia by Sufei Wang, of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and colleagues.
Several previous studies have demonstrated a link between hyperglycemia and worse outcomes in COVID-19, and at least one diabetes diagnosis, but this is the first to focus specifically on that group of patients.
Wang and colleagues found that a fasting blood glucose of 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dL) or greater on admission — present in 45.6% of those without a prior diabetes diagnosis — was an independent predictor of 28-day mortality.
Targeted Oncogene Therapy Before Surgery in Pediatric Patients With Advanced Invasive Thyroid Cancer at Initial Presentation
Monsoon Driving Care Tips
Association of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug Use With Survival in Patients With Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head & Neck Treated With Chemoradiation Therapy
COVID-19 : Intubation Boxes May Do More Harm Than Good
Clear aerosol boxes designed to keep COVID-19 patients’ airborne droplets from infecting healthcare workers during intubation may actually increase providers’ exposure to the virus, a small study suggests.
Joanna P. Simpson, MbChB, an intensivist in the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Eastern Health in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues, tested five models of barriers used for protection while intubating simulated “patients” with COVID-19 and compared the interventions with a control of having no protection. They published their findings online Thursday in Anaesthesia.
Coauthor Peter Chan, MBBS, also an intensivist at Eastern Health, told Medscape Medical News the virus essentially concentrates inside the box and because the box has holes on the sides to allow providers’ arms in, the gaps “act as nozzles, so when a patient coughs, it creates a sudden wave of air that pushes all these particles out the path of least resistance” and into the face of the intubator.