Int J Med Sci
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Multicenter Study
The role of chest CT in management of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections: A longitudinal multi-center study in Chongqing, China.
Background: Multiple societies including the Fleischner Society do not recommend that CT is routinely used in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections; however, this advice is based on the limited evidence. In this study, we aim to confirm whether it is necessary to do CT scans in SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic infections by summarizing the longitudinal chest CT and clinical features of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. Methods: A total of 33 individuals (14 men and 19 women) with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections were retrospectively enrolled. ⋯ Significant differences were exhibited in density, long diameter, number of lung segments involved, and percentage of consolidation between the first and last CT scans. All cases had stable conditions and finally confirmed negative for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests without developing into severe pneumonia. Conclusion: Considering poor performance of CT in screening, stable conditions during followup, and good outcomes in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, we confirm that it is unnecessary to do CT scans in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.
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Meta Analysis
Efficacy and Safety of CAR-T Therapy for Relapse or Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is incurable in spite of recent treatment improvements, highlighting the development of new therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has dramatically changed the therapeutic effectiveness in high-risk B-cell malignancies. For relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM), preclinical evaluations of CAR-T therapy have shown promising efficacy, thus various active clinical trials are under way. ⋯ In addition, the pooled grade 3-4 rates of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurologic toxicities (NT) were 14% and 13%, respectively. Conclusion: Our study suggests that CAR-T therapy has demonstrated efficacy and safety in RRMM patients. BCMA-targeted CAR-T and anti-BCMA contained regimen have shown better efficacy.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the largest health crisis ever faced worldwide. It has resulted in great health and economic costs because no effective treatment is currently available. Since infected persons vary in presentation from healthy asymptomatic mild symptoms to those who need intensive care support and eventually succumb to the disease, this illness is considered to depend primarily on individual immunity. ⋯ Some drugs with in-situ immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activity are also identified as adjunctive therapy in the COVID-19 era. This review discusses the importance of COVID-19 interactions with immune cells and inflammatory cells; and further emphasizes the possible pathways related with traditional herbs, medications and nutritional products. We believe that such pathophysiological pathway approach treatment is rational and important for future development of new therapeutic agents for prevention or cure of COVID-19 infection.
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Review Historical Article
Similarities and differences between HIV and SARS-CoV-2.
In the last 50 years we have experienced two big pandemics, the HIV pandemic and the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Both pandemics are caused by RNA viruses and have reached us from animals. ⋯ However, they have important similarities: the fear in the population, increase in proinflammatory cytokines that generate intestinal microbiota modifications or NETosis production by polymorphonuclear neutrophils, among others. They have been implicated in the clinical, prognostic and therapeutic attitudes.
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Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the most frequent treatment for patients suffering from malignant progression of cancer. Even though new treatments are now being implemented, administration of these chemotherapeutic agents remains as the first line option in many tumor types. However, the secondary effects of these compounds represent one of the main reasons cancer patients lose life quality during disease progression. ⋯ This mixture attenuates the chemotherapy and radiotherapy-related side effects such as radiation-induced skin burns and mucositis, chemotherapy-related diarrhea, hepatic toxicity and blood-infection. Moreover, it has been proven to be effective as anticancer agent in different tumor models both in vitro and in vivo, potentiating the cytotoxic effect of several chemotherapy compounds such as Lapatinib, Gemcitabine, Paclitaxel, Sorafenib and Irinotecan. The aim of this review is to put some light on the potential of this nutritional mixture as an anticancer agent and complement for the standard chemotherapy routine.