The American journal of the medical sciences
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Review
The Role of Blood Testing in Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Chronic Diseases: A Review.
Blood tests are vital to prevention, diagnosis, and management of chronic diseases. Despite this, it can be challenging to construct a comprehensive view of the clinical importance of blood testing because relevant literature is typically fragmented across different disease areas and patient populations. ⋯ Thus, this review article synthesizes the recommendations for, and importance of, blood testing across several common chronic conditions encountered in primary care and internal medicine, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, vitamin D deficiency, iron deficiency, and rheumatoid arthritis. Future research is needed to continue improving chronic disease management through clearer dissemination and awareness of clinical guidelines among providers, and better access to blood testing for patients (e.g., via pre-visit laboratory testing).
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Comparative Study
Cardiology department versus intensive care unit admission after successful uncomplicated transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Most patients after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are admitted directly to the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) despite low complication rates. Reducing unnecessary CICU hospitalization reduces healthcare costs. This study aimed to compare the outcomes between patients admitted directly to the cardiology department (CD) and those admitted to CICU based on prespecified protocols. ⋯ Direct admission to the CD after TAVR, according to the proposed criteria, may be considered as a safe and less expensive alternative for stable patients after an uncomplicated TAVR procedure.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Optimizing Oral Immune Tolerance to Type II Collagen in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Importance of Dose, Interfering Medication and Genetics.
Oral immune tolerance (OT) is a complex process with unknown genetic regulation. Our aim is to explore possible genetic control of OT in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). ⋯ The ROT1 region plays a role in the control of IFNγ production after oral dosing of auto-antigens, thereby determining if oral tolerance to that antigen will develop.
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Superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) is one of the most important participants of antioxidant enzyme system in biological system. Previous studies have found that SOD1 is associated with many inflammatory diseases. The goal of this study was to assess the associations of serum SOD1 with the severity and prognosis in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients by a prospective cohort study. ⋯ The level of serum SOD1 is positively associated with the severity and poor prognosis in CAP patients, suggesting that SOD1 is implicated in the initiation and progression of CAP. Serum SOD1 may be regarded as a biomarker to appraise the severity and prognosis for CAP patients.