Objective: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the combination of atorvastatin and N-acetyl cysteine in increasing platelet counts in patients with immune thrombocytopenia who were resistant to steroid therapy or had a relapse after treatment. Material and Methods: The patients included in this study received oral treatment of atorvastatin at a dose of 40 mg daily and N-acetyl cysteine at a dose of 400 mg every 8 h. The desired treatment duration was 12 months, but we included patients who completed at least 1 month of treatment in the analysis. The platelet counts were measured prior to the administration of the study treatment and in the first, third, sixth, and twelfth months of treatment (if available). A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: We included 15 patients who met our inclusion criteria. For the total treatment duration, the global response was 60% (nine patients); eight patients (53.3%) had a complete response and one patient (6.7%) had a partial response. Six patients (40%) were considered as having undergone treatment failure. Of the responder group, five patients maintained a complete response after treatment (55.5%), three patients maintained a partial response (33.3%), and one patient (11.1%) lost their response to the treatment. All of the patients in the responder group had significant increases in their platelet counts after treatment (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study provides evidence of a possible treatment option for patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia. However, further studies are needed.
Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic , Thrombocytopenia , Humans , Acetylcysteine/pharmacology , Acetylcysteine/therapeutic use , Atorvastatin/pharmacology , Atorvastatin/therapeutic use , Platelet Count , Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic/drug therapy , Thrombocytopenia/drug therapy , Treatment Outcome
Malnutrition is associated with several complications during hospital stay, including patients who will undergo major surgery. Therefore, it is important to optimize nutritional status in the preoperative period being the main objective restoring metabolic and immunological abnormalities. Preoperative fasting is a common practice in clinical settings, although it has been shown to induce insulin resistance. One intervention to avoid this practice is the implementation of the ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) protocol. Proper nutritional assessment in hospitalized patients is the cornerstone to identify patients at nutritional risk, or those in malnutrition who may benefit from early nutritional interventions. The feeding route should be chosen according to the patient's condition, either orally with the use of nutritional supplements and in those where calorie requirements cannot be achieved by oral, enteral nutrition is the next logical step, reserving parenteral nutritional support in patients with non-functional gastrointestinal tracts in order to improve postoperative morbidity and mortality.
La desnutrición se asocia con una larga lista de complicaciones intrahospitalarias, incluidos aquellos pacientes que se someterán a cirugía mayor. Por lo tanto, es importante optimizar el estado nutricional en el período preoperatorio, siendo el objetivo principal la restauración de anomalías metabólicas e inmunitarias. El ayuno preoperatorio es una práctica sistemática en el ámbito clínico, a pesar de que se ha demostrado que induce resistencia a la insulina. Una de las intervenciones para evitar dicha práctica es la implementación del protocolo ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery). Una correcta valoración nutricional en los pacientes hospitalizados es de vital importancia para identificar aquellos con riesgo nutricional, o bien aquellos en desnutrición que pudieran beneficiarse de intervenciones nutricionales tempranas. La ruta de alimentación debe elegirse de acuerdo con el estado del paciente, por vía oral con el uso de suplementos nutricionales o con nutrición enteral en aquellos cuyos requerimientos calóricos no logran ser alcanzados por dicha vía, y reservando el apoyo nutricional parenteral para aquellos con tracto gastrointestinal no funcional, con el objetivo de mejorar la morbilidad y la mortalidad posoperatorias.
Malnutrition , Parenteral Nutrition , Enteral Nutrition , Humans , Length of Stay , Malnutrition/etiology , Malnutrition/prevention & control , Nutritional Status , Nutritional Support , Parenteral Nutrition/methods , Postoperative Complications/etiology , Postoperative Complications/prevention & control
A finales de 2019, en Wuhan, China, se reportaron numerosos casos de neumonía comunitaria causada por un virus, llamado coronavirus tipo 2 asociado a síndrome respiratorio agudo grave (SARS-CoV-2). En octubre de 2020 rebasamos la preocupante cifra de 34 millones de casos en todo el mundo, con más de 1 millón de decesos. Se han hecho múltiples comparaciones con otras pandemias por coronavirus, y el impacto de la actual es cada vez más desolador.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As of 13 September 2020, almost 28 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 including more than 920,000 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic represents a potential threat to patients and healthcare systems worldwide. Patients with the worst outcomes and higher mortality are reported to include older adults, polymorbid individuals, and malnourished people in general. The purpose of this review is to provide concise guidance for the nutritional management of individuals with COVID-19 based on the current literature and focused on those in the non-ICU setting or with an older age and polymorbidity, which are independently associated with malnutrition and its negative impact on mortality. RECENT FINDINGS: Prolonged hospital stays are reported to be required for individuals with COVID-19, and longer acute setting stays may directly worsen or cause malnutrition, with severe loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, which may lead to poor quality of life and additional morbidity. Nutritional therapy is among the mainstay of therapeutic principles and one of the core contents of comprehensive treatment measures. The current COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. The prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malnutrition should therefore be routinely included in the management of individuals with COVID-19.
COVID-19 , Hospitalization , Malnutrition/therapy , Nutrition Therapy , Pandemics , COVID-19/therapy , COVID-19/virology , Humans , Malnutrition/prevention & control , Quality of Life , SARS-CoV-2
Los leiomiomas gástricos son tumoraciones submucosas benignas, poco comunes, que se originan del músculo liso. Clínicamente son asintomáticos, con buen pronóstico y con pocas complicaciones a largo plazo. Reportamos el caso de un joven de 16 años que se presenta a la clínica con melena y dolor abdominal. En la endoscopia se reporta una tumoración prepilórica, ulcerada y cubierta de fibrina. El estudio histopatológico mostró una neoplasia mesenquimal con positividad inmunohistoquimica para desmina y actina, así como negatividad para C-kit, DOG-1 y S-100, compatible con leiomioma gástrico. Fue intervenido quirúrgicamente realizándose antrectomía laparoscópica con reconstrucción en Y de Roux de manera exitosa.Gastric leiomyomas are rare, benign submucosal tumors originating from smooth muscle cells. They are usually asymptomatic, having good prognosis with limited long-term complications. A 16-year-old young man comes to our clinic and reports melena and abdominal pain. Upper endoscopy revealed a prepyloric, ulcerated, fibrin-covered tumor. Histopathological examination showed a positive immunohistochemical stain mesenchymal neoplasm for desmin and muscle actin, being negative for C-kit, DOG-1 and S100 proteins, consistent with gastric leiomyoma. Antrectomy with Roux-en-Y gastrojejunostomy was successfully performed.
Leiomyoma , Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage/etiology , Humans , Leiomyoma/complications , Leiomyoma/surgery
