The role of nutritional risk evaluation in predicting adverse outcomes among patients with severe COVID-19 in Vietnam.

Introduction: As sufficient nutrition helps alleviate catabolic stress and modulate the systemic inflammatory response of the body, it plays an indispensable role in the good prognosis of critically ill patients. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the malnutrition of patients with severe COVID-19 and its association with adverse treatment outcomes. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study in two provincial hospitals in Hanoi from February to April 2022. Participants were patients with severe COVID-19 admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Malnutrition risk were evaluated by Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 (NRS), Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), and the adverse prognosis was assessed by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II). The multivariate receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to estimate the predictive ability of those criteria regarding worse treatment results. Results: The percentages of malnutrition measured by NRS, GLIM, PNI, and BMI were 62.6, 51.5, 42.9, and 16.6%, respectively. Patients with more severe malnutrition assessed by GLIM, PNI, and having above target fasting blood glucose (FBG) (≥10.0 mmol/L) were more likely to have higher APACHE scores. PNI had a better diagnostic performance than NRS and BMI (AUC = 0.84, 0.81, and 0.82, respectively). In addition, FBG revealed a good prognostic implication (AUC = 0.84). Conclusion: A relatively high percentage of patients experienced moderate and severe malnutrition regardless of screening tools. Individuals at higher risk of malnutrition and high FBG were predicted to have more adverse treatment outcomes. It is recommended that nutritional screening should be conducted regularly, and personalizing nutritional care strategies is necessary to meet patients' nutrient demands and prevent other nutrition-related complications.

Copy number variations of cytochrome P450 genes in Kinh Vietnamese.

Background: The cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family is well known as a major group of drug metabolizing enzymes. The polymorphism of CYP450 genes is the main factor having an impact on the interindividual difference in drug response, including drug efficacy and drug safety. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) of Vietnamese Kinh has been widely studied, but information about the copy number variations (CNVs) of other CYP450 genes is still unknown. Objective: To identify the CNV variability of CYP450 in 154 healthy unrelated Kinh Vietnamese, except eCYP2D6, which was previously reported. Methods: Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) was applied for determination of copy number of 10 CYP450 genes. Later, PCR or quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to confirm the detected CNVs in randomly chosen subjects. Results: Of the 154 subjects, along with CYP2D6, 4 other CYP450 genes showed CNVs including duplications (CYP1B1), deletions (CYP2A6 and CYP2C9), and both duplications and deletions (CYP2E1). Among these, CYP2A6 exhibited the greatest frequency of CNVs compared with other CYP450, in which CYP2A6Del accounted for 11%. Meanwhile, allele CYP2E1Del showed the lowest frequency with only 0.3%. Conclusions: The present study provides new insight into CYP450 CNVs in the Kinh Vietnamese cohort. Our data have contributed to genetic profiling of CYP450 CNVs in Vietnam, which would be helpful for facilitating implementation of pharmacogenetics in drug dosing adjustment in Vietnam.

Simplified Phenomenological Model for Ferroelectric Micro-Actuator.

As smart structures are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our daily life, the need for efficient modeling electromechanical coupling devices is also rapidly advancing. Smart structures are often made of piezoelectric materials such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), which exhibits strong nonlinear behavior known as hysteresis effect under a large applied electric field. There have been numerous modeling techniques that are able to capture such an effect; some techniques are suitable for obtaining physical insights into the micro-structure of the material, while other techniques are better-suited to practical structural analyses. In this paper, we aim to achieve the latter. We propose a simplified phenomenological macroscopic model of a nonlinear ferroelectric actuator. The assumption is based on the direct relation between the irreversible strain and irreversible electric field, and the consequently irreversible polarization. The proposed model is then implemented in a finite element framework, in which the main features such as local return mapping and the tangent moduli are derived. The outcomes of the model are compared and validated with experimental data. Therefore, the development presented in this paper can be a useful tool for the modeling of nonlinear ferroelectric actuators.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of FAM13A Gene in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-A Case Control Study in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: In 2018, GOLD addressed the issues of genotypes associated with risk factors for COPD. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) demonstrated an association between COPD and several genetic variants of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the FAM13A gene with the risk of COPD. OBJECTIVE: To study the single nucleotide polymorphisms rs2869967 and rs17014601 of the FAM13A gene in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Subjects and research methods: 80 subjects diagnosed with COPD and 80 subjects determined not to have COPD according to GOLD 2020 criteria; the subjects were clinically examined, interviewed, and identified as possessing single nucleotide polymorphisms using the sanger sequencing method on whole blood samples. RESULTS: The male/female ratio of the patient group and the control group was 79/1 and 39/1, respectively. The percentages of C and T alleles of rs2869967 in COPD patients were 50.6% and 49.4%, respectively. The percentages of C and T alleles of rs17014601 in COPD patients were 31.9% and 68.1%, respectively. At rs17014601, the ratio values of alleles T and C in the disease group and the control group were markedly different, making them statistically reliable (p = 0.031). The rate of CT genotype in the group of patients was considerably higher than that of the control group. The TT homozygous genotype had a lower risk of COPD compared with the other genotypes in the dominant model (ORTT/(CC + CT) = 0.441; CI95% = 0.233-0.833); this difference was statistically significant (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: With rs17014601, it is characteristic that the frequency of the T allele appears more than the C allele, and the CT heterozygous phenotype accounts for the highest proportion in rs17014601 and rs2869967 recorded in COPD patients. There is an association between the genetic variant of the SNP FAM13A-rs17014601 and the risk of COPD.

Autologous adipose-derived stem cells therapy in COPD treatment: a case report.

Here, we describe the clinical course of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treated with autologous adipose-derived stem cell therapy. In September 2019, our patient was admitted to Bach Mai Hospital. His post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) was 21% and FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) was 40%. He had suffered from two exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the previous year. He received treatment with autologous stem cells from adipose tissue. Follow-up indicated that autologous stem cells from adipose tissue was a safe treatment and improved the patient's dyspnoea and quality of life.