The American journal of the medical sciences
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Editorial Review
An Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population.
The incidence and severity of COVID-19 infections have been disproportionately high in Native American populations. Native Americans are a high-risk group for COVID-19 because of a variety of healthcare disparities. Historically, these populations suffered excessively during previous epidemics in the United States (US). ⋯ Other infectious diseases, including HIV, hepatitis A and hepatitis C are more also common. Diabetes, alcoholism and cardiovascular diseases, all risk factors for severity and mortality in COVID-19 infection, are also more common in this group. Addressing the root causes of enhanced risk in Native American populations will improve outcomes from COVID-19 and future pandemics.
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Review Case Reports
Reversible Toxic Encephalopathy Involving the Cerebellum and Subcortical White Matter Attributed to Capecitabine.
Capecitabine is an anticancer drug related to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) that is used to treat multiple cancers. Little is known about the central nervous system toxicity of capecitabine owing to the low frequency of occurrence. ⋯ Whether uridine triacetate is a reasonable treatment choice for patients with life-threatening toxic encephalopathy depends on the availability of reliable clinical data. Prescreening for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase genotype variants and detection of 5-FU degradation rate prior to capecitabine treatment may become an effective way to avoid toxic reactions by regulating the therapeutic dose for each patient, which remains to be investigated and needs more clinical data to support.
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of recombinant human endostatin (rh-ES) combined with chemotherapy in advanced gastrointestinal tumors in China. ⋯ The short-term efficacy of rh-ES combined with chemotherapy for advanced gastrointestinal tumors was better, with fewer adverse reactions.
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The most recently approved fluoroquinolone for use in the US and Europe, delafloxacin (DLX) provides broad-spectrum coverage, improved side effect profile, and excellent potency. Currently approved for the treatment of acute bacterial skin infections and community-acquired pneumonia, DLX may be useful in the treatment of other infections given the longstanding versatility of other fluoroquinolones. ⋯ A new antibiotic with valuable characteristics, DLX treatment was highly successful in this case series, including with multiple off-label indications. Real-world clinical data with delafloxacin are currently scant. Prospective data would be useful for identifying future clinical niches for this new fluoroquinolone.