Application of Non-Invasive Ventilator in Treatment of Severe COVID-19 Patients.

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, there has been a global outbreak of COVID-19. As of the end of July 2020, more than 600,000 deaths had been reported globally. The purpose of this paper is to further explore the application of non-invasive ventilation in severe COVID-19 patients. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted to included 57 confirmed COVID-19 patients, among which 36 cases were severe. According to different oxygen inhalation methods, they were divided into non-invasive ventilator assisted ventilation group with 21 cases (group A) and 15 cases of nasal catheter oxygen inhalation group (group B). The data of respiration (RR), heart rate (HR), partial arterial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), partial arterial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2), and oxygenation index (OI) before the treatment of noninvasive ventilator assisted ventilation or nasal catheter oxygen treatment at 24, 48, and 72 hours of treatment of the 2 groups were collected and analyzed to determine whether the above indicators were statistically different in each time period. RESULTS: After 24 hours of treatment with noninvasive ventilator assisted ventilation in group A, RR gradually decreased, PaO2 and OI were significantly higher than before treatment, while after 24 hours of treatment, PaO2, RR, HR and other indexes in group B showed no significant improvement, and OI increased gradually after 48 hours of treatment, with statistically significant difference compared with that before treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Early adoption of non-invasive ventilation can effectively improve the hypoxic state of patients with severe COVID-19. The combination of underlying diseases will not prolong the use of non-invasive ventilation.

Genetic variants of lncRNA HOTAIR contribute to the risk of osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in adolescents and young adults. However, the essential mechanisms underlying osteosarcomagenesis remain obscure. The HOTAIR, a well-known long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), is involved in pathogenesis and progress of multiple tumors. To reveal the potential role of lncRNA HOTAIR in OS carcinogenesis, we conducted a two-stage, case-control study among Chinese population with 900 OS cases and 900 controls to evaluated associations of its genetic variants with OS risk. We found that C allele of rs7958904 was associated with a significantly decreased OS risk when compared with G allele (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.67-0.90; P = 6.77×10-4). Functional analyses on HOTAIR Expression showed that the expression level of HOTAIR in OS tissues was significantly higher than that in corresponding normal tissues, and subjects with the rs7958904 CC genotype had significantly lower HOTAIR RNA levels than those of other genotypes. This should be the first study to examine the association between HOTAIR variants and OS risk.

The diagnostic value of survivin in malignant pleural effusion: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Survivin in pleural effusion is a promising marker for the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion. METHODS: Based on the principles and methods of Cochrane systematic reviews, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Knowledge (ISI), the Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched to identify studies that assessed the diagnostic value of survivin in pleural effusion for malignant pleural effusion. Stata 12 and Meta-disc 1.4 software were used to test the heterogeneity and to perform the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Our search returned 167 articles, of which ten fulfilled the inclusion criteria. These studies included a total of 614 patients with malignant pleural effusion and 430 patients with benign pleural effusion as controls. The summary assessments revealed that the pooled sensitivity was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.82-0.88) and the pooled specificity was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89-0.94). The positive likelihood ratio was 8.76 (95% CI: 5.41-14.20), the negative likelihood ratio was 0.16 (95% CI: 0.13-0. 20) and the diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 59.72 (95% CI: 39.60-90.05). The area under the curve (AUC) for the pleural effusion survivin tests was 0.9485, and the *Q index estimate for these tests was 0.8885. CONCLUSIONS: Survivin in pleural effusion has potential diagnostic value with advanced sensitivity and specificity and it can be used as adjunct tool for non-invasive diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion.

A cross-sectional and follow-up study of leukopenia in tuberculosis patients: prevalence, risk factors and impact of anti-tuberculosis treatment.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for leukopenia in tuberculosis patients and the impact of anti-tuberculosis regimens on the occurrence of leukopenia in newly treated tuberculosis patients. METHODS: A total of 1,904 tuberculosis patients were included in the study. A cross-sectional survey of the prevalence of leukopenia was initially conducted, and then factors influencing leukopenia were identified using Logistic regression analysis. Non-treatment factors influencing peripheral blood leukocyte counts were analyzed using univariate COX proportional hazards models. Covariate analysis was used to assess the independent effect of different anti-tuberculosis regimens on peripheral blood leukocyte counts. RESULTS: Being female, advanced age and longer duration of previous anti-tuberculosis treatment (>6 month) were risk factors for leukopenia in tuberculosis patients, while secondary pulmonary tuberculosis, higher body mass index (BMI: 24-27.9 kg/m(2)), and higher degree of education (senior high school or above) were protective factors. Gender, vegetable consumption, drinking, pulmonary infection, other chronic diseases, and use of antibiotics were significantly associated with the development of leukopenia in patients on anti-tuberculosis treatment. In tuberculosis patients treated with anti-tuberculosis regimens not containing antibiotics, peripheral blood leukocyte levels gradually declined with the prolongation of treatment duration. In tuberculosis patients treated with anti-tuberculosis regimens containing antibiotics, peripheral blood leukocyte levels showed a declining trend. CONCLUSIONS: Female patients, patients at advanced age and recurrent tuberculosis patients having longer previous anti-tuberculosis treatment are high-risk populations for leukopenia. Attention should be paid to the influence of vegetable consumption and drinking, co-morbidities and use of antibiotics during anti-tuberculosis treatment.