Articles: disease.
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Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common and severe complication of diabetes mellitus and is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) worldwide. Despite current treatments, many individuals with DN progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. The advancement in our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy has led to the development of new prevention and treatment strategies. ⋯ Combination therapies targeting multiple disease pathways may also offer the most significant potential for improving outcomes for individuals with DN. Overall, the recent advances in the prevention and treatment of DN represent promising avenues for future research and clinical development. Novel therapies targeting inflammation and fibrosis, stem cell and gene therapies, and artificial intelligence-based approaches all show great potential for improving outcomes for individuals with DN.
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Review Case Reports
A case report: Unilateral biportal endoscopic revision for adjacent segmental disease: Case presentations and literature review.
Biportal endoscopic revision surgery for adjacent segmental disease (ASD) after lumbar arthrodesis is seldomly reported. Herein, we present 3 cases of ASD with radiculopathy wherein satisfactory results were obtained using unilateral biportal endoscopic (UBE) decompression. ⋯ UBE revision surgery showed a favorable clinical and radiological result without complications and may be a safe and effective alternative technique for ASD.
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Multicenter Study
The prevalence and risk factors of functional dyspepsia among adults in low- and middle-income countries: An international cross-sectional study.
Dyspepsia is one of the most common chronic digestive diseases, which is due to underlying organic causes that can be detected, or causes that cannot be detected called functional dyspepsia (FD). There is no epidemiological study to date that measures the prevalence and risk factors of the FD in low- and middle-income countries, so this international cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 low- and middle-income countries from data previously published its protocol NCT05340400. Participants were recruited in the period from 22/April/2022 to 14/June/2022. ⋯ Sudan obtained the highest prevalence 44.3%, then Egypt 41.4%, while the lowest prevalence was in Algeria 25.7%. Moreover, there are many risk factors, including modifiable ones, such as severe stress, chronic fatigue, smoking, abnormal BMI, insufficient or too many hours of sleep, and previous infection with Covid-19, and non-modifiable ones such as advanced age, chronic diseases, and female sex. Highlighting the prevalence and increasing risk factors of FD in low- and middle-income countries should draw the attention of those responsible for health care in these countries and reduce the risk factors.
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Vaccination against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been the cornerstone of reducing morbidity and mortality of this disease, as it has been shown to decrease the risk of viral transmission, severity of disease, hospitalization, and intubation. However, true understanding of its impact is skewed by heterogeneous vaccine administration due to lack of equitable access, vaccine hesitancy, and varying social determinants of health. Therefore, this study aims to identify groups that are less likely to be vaccinated and understand whether the resultant differences in vaccination rates affect morbidity and mortality in socially marginalized COVID-19 patients. ⋯ Our study also shows that full vaccination protects against mortality and decreases the odds of intubation by 55% (adjusted odds ratio = 0.453, P value = .015) compared to no vaccination or partial vaccination. Findings from this study show an encouraging trend that sicker patients had higher rates of vaccination against COVID-19. This trend highlights the need for further identification of motivators that may be applied to vaccine-hesitant populations, which can help guide population-level policy, increase vaccination campaign yield, and reach for health equity.
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Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is an upper genital tract infection caused by a variety of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms ascending from the cervix or vagina. Though PID is mainly a sexually transmitted disease; 15% are non-sexually transmitted.[1] In our study, we aim to assess gynecologists' understanding and awareness of PID; as it presents an important health issue affecting the Jordanian community and similar communities with the same cultural and religious backgrounds. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire that received responses from 172 gynecologists in Jordan. ⋯ In addition, we think there is a lack of certain standards on how to define PID and acknowledge its effect on the community as well as the disappointing level of knowledge about different aspects of PID gynecologists show, starting with its prevalence and ending with treatment policy. Clearer guidelines for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of PID should be adopted. These findings should be acknowledged by all doctors from neighboring countries as well as those within similar communities to Jordan.