Outcome of early short-course corticosteroids in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): A report from a Saudi Arabian hospital.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of corticosteroid use in patients with acute respiratory illness due to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is unclear. In this study, we describe the clinical course of COVID-19 patients who received early course of corticosteroid treatment in patients with severe respiratory distress secondary to COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical course of 30 COVID-19 patients admitted to King Fahad Military Medical Complex in Dhahran from the period of late March 2020 till June 2020 was assessed and described. All the 30 patients received steroids. Data on demographics, medical history, laboratory findings, chest radiology, medication use, and clinical outcomes were extracted from patients' records. Data was entered and analyzed with SPSS software. RESULTS: A total of 30 patients admitted with COVID-19 were included. The mean age 52.53 years (SD=16.31) with a range from 22-98 years; 73.3% were males. About two-thirds of the patients at least had comorbidities; most common were diabetes (46.7%) and hypertension (46.7%), and chronic heart disease (16.7%). About 57% patients had fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The median C-reactive protein (CRP) level was 87.5 mg/dL (IQR 45.0 - 165.65); 46.7% had CRP levels >120 mg/dL. The median white blood cell, lymphocytes, and platelet counts were 4.39, 1.05, and 212 K/µL, respectively. All the patients received corticosteroids; 17 (56.7%) patients were given IV methylprednisolone and 13 (43.3%) received dexamethasone tablets. Of the total patients, 13 (43.3%) patients developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); 17 (56.7%) required oxygen, 10 (33.3%) were admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 7 (23.3%) required mechanical ventilation. All the patients improved and were discharged home well. CONCLUSION: Early use of oral corticosteroids in patients with higher CRP levels may lead to better outcomes and may lower risk of transfer to ICU and use of mechanical ventilation.

Autozygome and high throughput confirmation of disease genes candidacy.

PURPOSE: Establishing links between Mendelian phenotypes and genes enables the proper interpretation of variants therein. Autozygome, a rich source of homozygous variants, has been successfully utilized for the high throughput identification of novel autosomal recessive disease genes. Here, we highlight the utility of the autozygome for the high throughput confirmation of previously published tentative links to diseases. METHODS: Autozygome and exome analysis of patients with suspected Mendelian phenotypes. All variants were classified according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. RESULTS: We highlight 30 published candidate genes (ACTL6B, ADAM22, AGTPBP1, APC, C12orf4, C3orf17 (NEPRO), CENPF, CNPY3, COL27A1, DMBX1, FUT8, GOLGA2, KIAA0556, LENG8, MCIDAS, MTMR9, MYH11, QRSL1, RUBCN, SLC25A42, SLC9A1, TBXT, TFG, THUMPD1, TRAF3IP2, UFC1, UFM1, WDR81, XRCC2, ZAK) in which we identified homozygous likely deleterious variants in patients with compatible phenotypes. We also identified homozygous likely deleterious variants in 18 published candidate genes (ABCA2, ARL6IP1, ATP8A2, CDK9, CNKSR1, DGAT1, DMXL2, GEMIN4, HCN2, HCRT, MYO9A, PARS2, PLOD3, PREPL, SCLT1, STX3, TXNRD2, WIPI2) although the associated phenotypes are sufficiently different from the original reports that they represent phenotypic expansion or potentially distinct allelic disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Our results should facilitate the timely relabeling of these candidate disease genes in relevant databases to improve the yield of clinical genomic sequencing.

Synthesis and spectroscopic studies of stable aqueous dispersion of silver nanoparticles.

A facile approach for the synthesis of stable aqueous dispersion of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using glucose as the reducing agent in water/micelles system, in which cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as capping agent (stabilizer) is described. The evolution of plasmon band of AgNPs was monitored under different conditions such as (a) concentration of sodium hydroxide, (b) concentration of glucose, (c) concentration of silver nitrate (d) concentration of CTAB, and (e) reaction time. AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fluorescence spectroscopy and FT-IR spectroscopy. The results revealed an easy and viable strategy for obtaining stable aqueous dispersion of AgNPs with well controlled shape and size below 30 nm in diameter.