Clinical medicine (London, England)
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Diabetes and obesity are closely interlinked. Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and appears to be an important risk factor for diabetic micro- and macrovascular complications. Management of hyperglycaemia in people with diabetes is important to reduce diabetes-related complications. ⋯ Subsequent addition of metformin and newer agents, such as sodium-glucose transporter-2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues, will aid glucose control and weight reduction, and offer cardiovascular and renal protection. These drugs are now much higher in the therapeutic pathway in many national and international guidelines. Bariatric surgery may also be an effective way to manage hyperglycaemia or induce remission in individuals with both obesity and diabetes.
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COVID-19 is still around, and in the most severe cases can rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome. When mechanical ventilation fails to improve oxygenation, we desperately shift our management to venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vv-ECMO). In this opinion article, we discuss which patients are the most suitable to select for this technique, reiterate previous observations in acute respiratory distress syndrome, and the options for the patients judged not fitting for ECMO.
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Case Reports
Unilateral upper cervical cord infarction in Opalski's syndrome caused by spontaneous vertebral artery dissection.
We report a case of a man with concurrent unilateral upper cervical cord infarction in Opalski's syndrome due to spontaneous vertebral artery dissection.
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We report a case of a woman presenting with acute onset of delirium following ingestion of Amanita muscaria mushrooms for anxiolytic effect. Immediate diagnosis was obtained after taking a detailed history and confirmation with online poison database images. She fully recovered with supportive treatment and was discharged 24 hours after presentation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report on A muscaria mushroom poisoning in the UK.
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Hepatitis D virus (HDV), also referred to as hepatitis delta virus, is the smallest virus capable of causing human disease. It is unable to replicate on its own and can only propagate in the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV). ⋯ This makes the management of HDV a challenge for physicians. In this review, we look at the background, diagnosis and treatment of HDV, informed by our hospital data, to set out the optimal management of HDV; we also explore novel treatment options for this disease.