Efficacy and safety of 12-hour versus 24-hour magnesium sulfate in management of patients with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Magnesium sulfate is the most utilized anticonvulsant for treating patients with eclampsia and pre-eclampsia. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the 12-h regimen of magnesium sulfate outweighs the 24-h regimen in both efficacy and safety in the management of patients with mild or severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. METHODS: We searched six electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Ovid, and Google Scholar. This search was conducted to yield any studies that were published until 15 January 2023. We did the statistical analysis plan by Review Manager Software version 5.4. RESULTS: We included 13 randomized control trials with 2813 patients in this systematic review. Our meta-analysis revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between the 12-h regimen of the magnesium sulfate group and the 24-h regimen of the magnesium sulfate group in our outcome of interest: occurrence of seizure (RD: -0.00, 95% CI [-0.01, 0.00], P = 0.56), diminished deep tendon reflexes (RD: -0.00, 95% CI [-0.01, 0.01], P = 0.80), respiratory depression (RD: -0.00, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.01], P = 0.57), and pulmonary edema (RD: -0.00, 95% CI [-0.01, 0.01], P = 0.85). CONCLUSION: Our study showed no statistically significant difference in effectiveness and toxicity risk between the 12-h and 24-h regimens.

Efficacy and safety of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been presented as a potential therapeutic option for patients with cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction (CS-MI). We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of ECMO in CS-MI. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing evidence from randomized controlled trials obtained from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science until September 2023. We used the random-effects model to report dichotomous outcomes using risk ratio and continuous outcomes using mean difference with a 95% confidence interval. Finally, we implemented a trial sequential analysis to evaluate the reliability of our results. RESULTS: We included four trials with 611 patients. No significant difference was observed between ECMO and standard care groups in 30-day mortality with pooled RR of 0.96 (95% CI: 0.81-1.13, p = 0.60), acute kidney injury (RR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.41-1.03, p = 0.07), stroke (RR: 1.16, 95% CI: 0.38-3.57, p = 0.80), sepsis (RR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.77-1.47, p = 0.71), pneumonia (RR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.58-1.68, p = 0.96), and 30-day reinfarction (RR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.25-3.60, p = 0.94). However, the ECMO group had higher bleeding events (RR: 2.07, 95% CI: 1.44-2.97, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: ECMO did not improve clinical outcomes compared to the standard of care in patients with CS-MI but increased the bleeding risk.

Efficacy and Safety of Ketamine-Dexmedetomidine Versus Ketamine-Propofol Combination for Periprocedural Sedation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The combination of ketamine with propofol and dexmedetomidine has gained popularity for sedation and general anesthesia in different populations. In our meta-nalysis, we helped the anesthesiologists to know the efficiency and the efficacy of both combinations in adult and pediatric patients. METHODS: We searched PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and Scopus from inception to August 1, 2023. Our outcome parameters for efficacy were recovery time, pain score, and physician satisfaction while for safety were the related cardiorespiratory, neurological, and gastrointestinal adverse events. RECENT FINDINGS: Twenty-two trials were included with a total of 1429 patients. We found a significantly longer recovery time in the ketadex group of 7.59 min (95% CI, 4.92, 10.26; I2 = 94%) and a significantly less pain score of - 0.72 (95% CI, - 1.10, - 0.34; I2 = 0%). Adults had a significantly better physician satisfaction score with the ketofol group, odds ratio of 0.29 (95% CI, 0.12, 0.71; I2 = 0%). Recovery agitations were higher in the ketofol group with an odds ratio of 0.48 (95% CI, 0.24, 0.98; I2 = 36%). Furthermore, we found a significant difference between the combinations with a higher incidence in the ketadex group with pooled odds ratio of 1.75 (95% CI, 1.06, 2.88; I2 = 15%). Ketadex was associated with lower pain scores, hypoxic events and airway obstruction, and emergence agitation. At the same time, ketofol had much more clinician satisfaction which might be attributed to the shorter recovery time and lower incidence of nausea and vomiting. Therefore, we suppose that ketadex is the better combination in periprocedural sedation for both adult and pediatric patients who are not at greater risk for postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Once-weekly Insulin Icodec Versus Once-daily Long-acting Insulin for Type II Diabetes: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Insulin icodec is a novel basal insulin analog with once-weekly subcutaneous administration. We aim to estimate the efficacy and safety of insulin icodec vs long-acting insulin (insulin glargine and degludec) in type II diabetic patients. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which were retrieved by systematically searching PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Cochrane through May 29, 2023. We used RevMan V. 5.4 to pool dichotomous data using risk ratio (RR) and continuous data using mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Our primary outcome was glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) change. Results: We included 7 RCTs with a total of 3183 patients. Insulin icodec was associated with significantly decreased HbA1C (MD: -0.15 with 95% CI [-0.24, -0.06], P = .002) and increased percentage of time with glucose in range (TIR) (MD: 4.06 with 95% CI [2.06, 6.06], P = .0001). However, insulin icodec was associated with increased body weight (MD: 0.57 with 95% CI [0.45, 0.70], P = .00001). Also, there was no difference regarding any serious adverse events (AEs) (RR: 0.96 with 95% CI [0.76, 1.20], P = .7) or AEs leading to withdrawal (RR: 1.54 with 95% CI [0.84, 2.82], P = .16). However, insulin icodec was associated with increased any AEs incidence (RR: 1.06 with 95% CI [1.01, 1.12], P = .02). Conclusion: Insulin icodec was associated with decreased HbA1C, increased TIR, with similar hypoglycemic and serious AEs. However, it was also associated with increased body weight and the incidence of any AEs.

Risk factors of diabetes and cancer-specific mortalities in patients with infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Breast cancer is considered one of the most common neoplasms worldwide. Diabetes (DM) increases mortality among postmenopausal patients with breast cancer. Our study aims to identify the risk factors of DM-specific mortality and infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) mortality in patients with IDC of the breast. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data of IDC patients were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database from 1975 to 2016. Independent variables included age, race, marital status, the primary site of IDC, breast subtype, the disease stage, grade, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Kaplan-Meier, Cox and Binary regression tests were used to analyze the data using SPSS software. RESULTS: A total of 673 533 IDC patients were analyzed. Of them, 4224 died due to DM and 116 822 died due to IDC. Factors that increase the risk of overall, IDC-specific, and DM-specific mortalities include older age, black race, widowed, uninsured, regional and distant stages, grade II and III, and no treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy or surgery. Additionally, the IDC mortality increased with separated status, all primary sites, all breast subtypes, and stage IV. CONCLUSION: In patients with IDC, controlling DM besides cancer is recommended to reduce the mortality risk. Old, black, widowed, uninsured, regional and distant stages, grade II and III, and no treatment are common risk factors for DM- and IDC-mortality.

Sildenafil for congenital heart diseases induced pulmonary hypertension, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Sildenafil was first prescribed for angina pectoris and then for erectile dysfunction from its effects on vascular smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilatation. Recently, sildenafil has been proposed for congenital heart diseases induced pulmonary hypertension, which constitutes a huge burden on children's health and can attribute to fatal complications due to presence of unoxygenated blood in the systemic circulation. Therefore, our meta-analysis aims to further investigate the safety and efficacy of sildenafil on children population. METHODS: We searched the following electronic databases: PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, WOS, Embase, and Scopus from inception to April 20th, 2022. Randomized controlled trials that assess the efficacy of using sildenafil in comparison to a placebo or any other vasodilator drug were eligible for inclusion. The inverse variance method was used to pool study effect estimates using the random effect model. Effect sizes are provided in the form of mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Our study included 14 studies with (n = 849 children) with a mean age of 7.9 months old. Sildenafil showed a statistically significant decrease over placebo in mean and systolic pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) with MD -7.42 (95%CI [-13.13, -1.71], P = 0.01) and -8.02 (95%CI [-11.16, -4.88], P < 0.0001), respectively. Sildenafil revealed a decrease in mean aortic pressure and pulmonary artery/aortic pressure ratio over placebo with MD -0.34 (95%CI [-2.42, 1.73], P = 0.75) and MD -0.10 (95%CI [-0.11, -0.09], P < 0.00001), respectively. Regarding post corrective operations parameters, sildenafil had a statistically significant lower mechanical ventilation time, intensive care unit stay, and hospital stay over placebo with MD -19.43 (95%CI [-31.04, -7.81], s = 0.001), MD -34.85 (95%CI [-50.84, -18.87], P < 0.00001), and MD -41.87 (95%CI [-79.41, -4.33], P = 0.03), respectively. Nevertheless, no difference in mortality rates between sildenafil and placebo with OR 0.25 (95%CI 0.05, 1.30], P = 0.10) or tadalafil with OR 1 (95%CI 0.06, 17.12], P = 1). CONCLUSION: Sildenafil is a well-tolerated treatment in congenital heart diseases induced pulmonary hypertension, as it has proven its efficacy not only in lowering both PAP mean and systolic but also in reducing the ventilation time, intensive care unit and hospital stay with no difference observed regarding mortality rates.

Can the current monkeypox affect the heart? A systematic review of case series and case report.

BACKGROUND: Monkeypox is a zoonotic viral infection first reported in May 2022. Monkeypox cases present with prodromal symptoms, rash, and/or systemic complications. This study systematically reviews the monkeypox cases presented with any cardiac complications. METHODS: A systematic literature search was done to locate papers that discuss any cardiac complications associated with monkeypox; then, data were analyzed qualitatively. RESULTS: Nine articles, including the 13 cases that reported cardiac complications of the disease, were included in the review. Five cases previously had sex with men, and two cases had unprotected intercourse, which reveals the importance of the sexual route in disease transmission. All cases have a wide spectrum of cardiac complications, such as acute myocarditis, pericarditis, pericardial effusion, and myopericarditis. CONCLUSION: This study clarifies the potential for cardiac complications in monkeypox cases and provides avenues for future research to determine the underlying mechanism. Also, we found that the cases with pericarditis were treated with colchicine, and those with myocarditis were treated with supportive care or cardioprotective treatment (Bisoprolol and Ramipril). Furthermore, Tecovirimat is used as an antiviral drug for 14 days.