The role of vitamin D in the age of COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Evidence recommends that vitamin D might be a crucial supportive agent for the immune system, mainly in cytokine response regulation against COVID-19. Hence, we carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis in order to maximise the use of everything that exists about the role of vitamin D in the COVID-19. METHODS: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science up to December 18, 2020. Studies focused on the role of vitamin D in confirmed COVID-19 patients were entered into the systematic review. RESULTS: Twenty-three studies containing 11 901 participants entered into the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that 41% of COVID-19 patients were suffering from vitamin D deficiency (95% CI, 29%-55%), and in 42% of patients, levels of vitamin D were insufficient (95% CI, 24%-63%). The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was 20.3 ng/mL among all COVID-19 patients (95% CI, 12.1-19.8). The odds of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 are 3.3 times higher among individuals with vitamin D deficiency (95% CI, 2.5-4.3). The chance of developing severe COVID-19 is about five times higher in patients with vitamin D deficiency (OR: 5.1, 95% CI, 2.6-10.3). There is no significant association between vitamin D status and higher mortality rates (OR: 1.6, 95% CI, 0.5-4.4). CONCLUSION: This study found that most of the COVID-19 patients were suffering from vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency. Also, there is about three times higher chance of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 among vitamin-D-deficient individuals and about five times higher probability of developing the severe disease in vitamin-D-deficient patients. Vitamin D deficiency showed no significant association with mortality rates in this population.

A review of blood usage and wastage in a tertiary heart center.

Background/Objectives: Blood is a vital resource that its utilization is ever increasing throughout the world and blood wastage is a global challenge that needs to be controlled. Most blood resources are used during complications of pregnancy, trauma, severe childhood anemia, gynecology, cancers, surgery, hematology disorders, and chronic diseases. Units that are expired, broken bags, returning the blood unit after 30 min, blood clotted units, etc., which are due to lack of awareness may result in the wastage of blood products. The objective of this study is to analyze the usage and wastage of blood and its products in Mazandaran heart center.Methods: In this retrospective study, the survey was carried out on the data that were obtained from Mazandaran heart center of Sari, Iran during 2012-2017. Data included details of usage and wastage on blood and its product units. MS Excel 2016 and SPSS 16.0 were used in analysis and diagrams.Results: A total of 35,686 blood units were consumed, which included 55.7% packed red blood cells (PRBCs), 33.9% platelets (Plts), 8.9% fresh-frozen-plasma (FFP), and 8.9% cryoprecipitates. Moreover, 823 blood units including 41.4% FFP, 37.2% PRBCs, and 21.4% Plts were wasted mostly because of inappropriate order (70.6%). Cross-match to transfusion ratio was 1.13. The intensive care unit reported the highest level of blood intake by 45.0%. The blood group O+ was the most frequent by 34.8%. In addition, blood wastage has decreased over study period by approximately 10.0%.Conclusion: Our study showed not only the increasing pattern of blood usage but also the dropping pattern of blood wastage due to hemovigilance performance and additional training in our healthcare center. We found that the main reason for the blood wastage in this center is an excessive order of blood units.

Selective toxicity of persian gulf sea cucumber holothuria parva on human chronic lymphocytic leukemia b lymphocytes by direct mitochondrial targeting.

Natural products isolated from marine environment are well known for their pharmacodynamic potential in diversity of disease treatments such as cancer or inflammatory conditions. Sea cucumbers are one of the marine animals of the phylum Echinoderm. Many studies have shown that the sea cucumber contains antioxidants and anti-cancer compounds. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a disease characterized by the relentless accumulation of CD5+ B lymphocytes. CLL is the most common leukemia in adults, about 25-30% of all leukemias. In this study B lymphocytes and their mitochondria (cancerous and non-cancerous) were obtained from peripheral blood of human subjects and B lymphocyte cytotoxicity assay, and caspase 3 activation along with mitochondrial upstream events of apoptosis signaling including reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial swelling were determined following the addition of Holothuria parva extract to both cancerous and non-cancerous B lymphocytes and their mitochondria. Our in vitro finding showed that mitochondrial ROS formation, MMP collapse, and mitochondrial swelling and cytochrome c release were significantly (P < 0.05) increased after addition of different concentrations of H. parva only in cancerous BUT NOT normal non-cancerous mitochondria. Consistently, different concentrations of H. parva significantly (P < 0.05) increased cytotoxicity and caspase 3 activation only in cancerous BUT NOT normal non-cancerous B lymphocytes. These results showed that H. parva methanolic extract has a selective mitochondria mediated apoptotic effect on chronic lymphocytic leukemia B lymphocytes hence may be promising in the future anticancer drug development for treatment of CLL. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 32: 1158-1169, 2017.

Does henna impact pulse oximetry results?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of henna on the results of pulse oximetry in healthy women. METHODS: 100 young women (20-60 years of age) were recruited. The Iranian original red henna was used to colour the index finger of THE non-dominant hand; the middle finger of the same hand was the control. Blood oxygen saturation was simultaneously measured by two calibrated pulse oximeters. RESULT: Henna did not affect pulse oximetry measurement of oxygen saturation. There was no statistically significant difference between the control and the henna dyed fingers. CONCLUSIONS: Henna is not likely to change the accuracy of oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximeter. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: 20120906159N20.

Altered levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in sickle cell disease patients during vaso-occlusive crises and the steady state condition.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and TGF-ß in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients, and to compare the results during vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) or steady state (StSt) conditions. METHODS: 54 SCD patients (37HbSS and 17Sß(+)Thal) were enrolled in the study and evaluated in two groups as follows; group A consisted of 39 VOC patients and group B comprised 15 StSt patients. Nineteen healthy volunteers were included as controls. Circulating levels of IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17,TNF-α and TGF-ß were measured using ELISA. RESULTS: Patients in VOC showed higher mean levels of all cytokines than those found in steady-state patients, but this was only marginally significant for IL-8 levels (P = 0.08). Increased levels of TGF-ß and IL-17 were found in StSt patients versus normal controls (P = 0.004 and P<0.0001 respectively). A positive correlation was observed between IL-8 and IL-17 in both groups of patients (P = 0.002 and P = 0.005 respectively). Decreased levels of TNF-α, IL-1ß and IL-17 were found in hydroxyurea-treated patients. Additionally, significantly higher levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were observed in hydroxyurea-treated and untreated patients than in controls respectively (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially IL-8 and IL-17, could be used as related markers for assessing disease severity, and consequently therapeutic intervention.