Assessment of anxiety and depression among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Thailand during the first wave of the pandemic: a cross-sectional study.

Anxiety and depression in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Thailand during the first wave of the pandemic were investigated. Thai version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was chosen as an instrument for evaluation. Thirty-two voluntary participants completed the questionnaire. Three (9.4%) respondents had abnormal anxiety sub-scale scores while no respondents had abnormal depression sub-scale scores. There was no statistical demographic difference between the anxiety and non-anxiety groups.

Urinary podocalyxin, the novel biomarker for detecting early renal change in obesity.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity is increasing during the past decade along with obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG), glomeruli injury due to the obesity. The major pathogenesis of ORG is the shedding of podocytes from the glomerular cell barrier into urine. Podocalyxin (PCX), a main surface antigen of podocyte, correlates well with glomerulosclerosis progression and glomerular injury severity, and might be a potential biomarker for early renal alteration in obesity. In addition, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) also play a role in promoting glomerulosclerosis. The aim of this study was to explore whether obese subjects without other diseases excrete more PCX-positive (PCX+) cells than non-obese individuals, in comparison with urine protein-creatinine ratio (UPCR) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) as traditional renal markers. Moreover, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on urinary VEGF, PCX or α-SMA positive cells was also investigated. METHODS: Forty-eight obese and 13 non-obese adults were included. Exfoliated cells from fresh first void morning urine were harvested, stained with PCX, VEGF, and α-SMA antibody, and quantified by flow cytometry. Correlation between interested urinary biomarkers (cells positive for PCX, VEGF plus PCX and α-SMA), UPCR and GFR with BMI and metabolic risk factors were analyzed. RESULTS: Obese patients had significantly higher PCX+ cells than non-obese [0.62 (0.00-13.13) vs. 0.15 (0.00-0.72) cells/ml × mg cr, p < 0.05]. There was no significant difference in GFR and UPCR between the groups. Of interest, BMI demonstrated a correlation with PCX+ cells (r = 0.343, p = 0.008) and cells positive for PCX plus VEGF (r = 0.374, p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Obese subjects without other diseases and with normal UPCR and GFR showed evidence of renal alteration through the detection of a higher number of PCX+ cells. Increasing BMI also resulted in higher number of PCX+ cells.

Potential causes of black-stained peritoneal dialysis tubing: an analysis from nurse practitioner's prospect.

BACKGROUND: Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) has been promoted to be the main method of treatment for Thai End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients; however, a national survey of dialysis centers reported an annual incidence of black-stained particle of 57.6 per 1,000 CAPD cases. The objective of this study was to identify potential causes of the stain in the nurse practitioners' prospect. FINDINGS: This study applied three-round Delphi technique. In the first round, the questionnaire was sent to 127 nurses in all dialysis centers. Their responses were analyzed to come up with an anonymous summary, which was presented in the second and third round of the survey among 80 and 200 nurses. The response rates of the three rounds of Delphi were 57.5%, 81.3%, and 75.0%, respectively. Nurses consistently believed that the contamination was caused by spilled-out povidone-iodine solution during transfer set change. Other potential causes were previous peritonitis, inadequate dialysis, low serum albumin, transfer set soaking with antiseptics, patient history of diabetes, dressing technique, and existence of dry abdomen period. CONCLUSIONS: Black-stained particle is a common contamination of dialysis tube in CAPD patients. This study proposed some potential determinants, most of which were relevant to care process.