International journal of clinical practice
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Mar 2021
Clinical characteristics and progression of COVID-19 confirmed cases admitted to a single British clinical centre-a brief case series report.
In December 2019, a pneumonia-like illness was first reported in Wuhan-China caused by a new coronavirus named corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) which then spread to cause a global pandemic. Most of the available data in the literature is derived from Chinese cohorts and we aim to contribute the clinical experience of a single British clinical centre with the characteristics of a British cohort. ⋯ This case series demonstrated that the characteristics of British COVID-19 patients were generally similar to what is published in literature, although we report more gastrointestinal symptoms at presentation. We have identified frailty as a risk factor for adverse outcome in COVID-19 patients and suggest that it should be included in the future vaccination recommendations.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Mar 2021
Utility of the FebriDx point-of-care test for rapid triage and identification of possible coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is straining healthcare resources. Molecular testing turnaround time precludes having results at the point-of-care (POC) thereby exposing COVID-19/Non-COVID-19 patients while awaiting diagnosis. We evaluated the utility of a triage strategy including FebriDx, a 10-minute POC finger-stick blood test that differentiates viral from bacterial acute respiratory infection through detection of Myxovirus-resistance protein A (MxA) and C-reactive protein (CRP), to rapidly isolate viral cases requiring confirmatory testing. ⋯ FebriDx could be deployed as part of a reliable triage strategy for identifying symptomatic cases as possible COVID-19 in the pandemic.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Mar 2021
Association between thiazolidinedione use and rheumatoid arthritis risk in patients with type II diabetes, a population-based, case-control study.
A previous study revealed that PPARγ agonists have anti-inflammatory effects in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Furthermore, some studies have shown that type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) may elicit the development of RA. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the use of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) is associated with a lower risk of developing RA in patients with T2DM. ⋯ TZD use might reduce the risk of RA in patients with T2DM, but it was non-statistically significant. Further research is necessary to assess this association.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Mar 2021
Case ReportsEvaluation of antibiotic use among hospitalized patients in a pediatric department of a training hospital in Turkey.
Antibiotics are widely used and inaccurate or inappropriate prescription of antibiotics causes a significant increase in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections among children. This research aimed to study antibiotic prescriptions in hospitalised paediatric patients and to determine the prevalence of inappropriate antimicrobial use and the main types of prescribing errors. ⋯ The results of our study show that a high level of antibiotics in the paediatric clinic was misprescribed. Inappropriate usage increases the chances of microbial resistance and the cost of treatment. Precautions should be taken in this regard.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Mar 2021
In-vitro and in-vivo performance modeling and optimization of different dry powder inhalers: a complementary study of neural networks, genetic algorithms, and decision trees.
Aerosol delivery from DPIs could be affected by different factors. This study aimed to evaluate and predict the effects of different factors on drug delivery from DPIs. ⋯ Modelling of the input data showed a good differentiating and prediction power for both in vitro and in vivo models. The results of the modelling refer to the high efficacy of Diskus followed by Turbohaler for delivering aerosol. With two inhalations, the three DPIs showed an increase in the percent of drug excreted at slow inhalations.