Obesity and Higher Risk for Severe Complications of Covid-19: What to do when the two pandemics meet.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread around the globe, infecting more than ten million individuals, with more than 500,000 dead; about one half of the infected people have recovered. Despite this fact, a subgroup of individuals affected by COVID-19 is at greater risk of developing worse outcomes and experience a high rate of mortality. Data on the association between obesity and COVID-19 are growing; the available studies, have reported a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in patients experiencing a severe COVID-19 course, with serious complications requiring hospitalization and admission to intensive care units. This paper attempts to highlight potential mechanisms behind the greater vulnerability to COVID-19 of individuals with obesity. The presence of uncontrolled chronic obesity-related comorbidities, particularly pulmonary diseases, can present a primary fertile soil for respiratory tract infection. Combined with immune system impairments, such as alteration in the T-cell proliferation and macrophage differentiation, and the high pro-inflammatory cytokine production by the adipose organ, this may worsen the general condition toward a systemic diffusion of infection. Prevention remains the first line of intervention in these patients that can be achieved by adhering to social distancing and adopting hygiene precautions, combined with a healthy lifestyle. Patients with obesity require preferential access dedicated to primary care services to ensure they are regularly taking their medications for the treatment of any concurrent chronic diseases. Finally, their physicians must promptly manage any medical signs or symptoms in the case of suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2) infection to prevent the risk of severe outcomes.

Esophageal motility and symptoms in restricting and binge-eating/purging anorexia.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal symptoms are common in anorexia nervosa, but it is not known whether they are associated with motility disorders, with different forms of the disease, and whether they respond to nutritional rehabilitation. METHODS: To clarify these points, 23 patients with anorexia nervosa (12 binge-eating/purging, "purgers"; 11 restricting type, "restricters") were studied by esophageal manometry before and after 22 weeks rehabilitation. Manometric parameters of 35 age and sex-matched patients were used as controls. Patients with anorexia also filled questionnaires on eating disorder psychopathology, psychopathological distress and esophageal, gastric and colonic symptoms before and after 4 and 22 weeks of a rehabilitation program. RESULTS: Symptoms were more severe in patients than in controls. Gastric and colonic, but not esophageal symptoms improved with treatment. LES basal pressure was higher in restricters (restricters 32.1±4.6; purgers 14.9±2.2; controls 17.1±1.1 mmHg, p<0.005), but still within normal range; this difference disappeared after treatment. Postdeglutitive body waves were normally propagated. Their amplitude was significantly higher in anorexia than in controls. No correlation was found between results of psychopathological tests (improved after treatment), esophageal symptoms and manometry. CONCLUSIONS: In anorexia, esophageal symptoms are frequent and severe. They are not adequately explained by psychological or manometric derangements.

Marked increases in bone mineral density and biochemical markers of bone turnover in patients with anorexia nervosa gaining weight.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a life-threatening eating disorder characterized by an inability to maintain a normal body weight and amenorrhoea, often associated with osteoporosis and increased risk of fragility fractures. Bone metabolism, including markers of bone turnover (serum total alkaline phosphatase, bone alkaline phosphatase [bone AP], osteocalcin [OC] and type I collagen C-telopeptide breakdown products [sCTX]) and bone mineral density (BMD) by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the spine and at the hip, were evaluated in 55 consecutive women with AN undergoing a 3-month intensive nutritional rehabilitation program. The control group was constituted of 25 healthy young medical students. In AN patients body weight increased during the 3-month nutritional program from 37.8+/-5.1 (mean+/-SD) to 51.5+/-4.5 kg. The corresponding BMI rose to values >17.5 kg/m(2) in all patients. Mean BMD significantly rose by 2.6+/-3.5% and 1.1+/-3.6% at the hip and at the spine, respectively. The markers of bone formation, serum bone AP and osteocalcin, significantly rose by two-folds, while sCTX decreased by 16%. The changes in hip BMD were positively related (p<0.005) to changes in body weight and in bone AP (p<0.02) while the changes in spine BMD were positively related to changes in serum osteocalcin (p<0.05). In the 25 patients who attended the 12-month posttreatment control, mean body weight significantly decreased by 3.6+/-6.0 kg and this was not associated with any significant change in BMD values. In the patients in whom BMI fell again below 17.5 kg/m(2) hip BMD values decreased significantly. On the contrary, in the patients who maintained BMI >17.5 kg/m(2), BMD values continued to rise up to values over the 15-month observation of 4.8+/-6.2 and 7.1+/-12.1 at the spine and hip, respectively. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that substantial gains in weight in women with chronic AN are associated with remarkable increases in BMD at both the hip and the spine. If weight is maintained, the overall improvement approach 1 SD within 1 year. The changes in both weight and BMD are correlated with improvements in bone formation markers and diminutions in a marker of bone resorption.

Gastric emptying in patients with restricting and binge/purging subtypes of anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVES: Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in anorexia and in bulimia nervosa, but their relationship with gastric dysmotility and their possible improvement with refeeding are still debated. METHODS: Twenty-three anorexic patients (12 with the binge/purging and 11 with the restricting subtypes) were studied using an ultrasonographic gastric-emptying test, psychopathological questionnaires, and bowel symptom questionnaires, before and after 4 and 22 wk rehabilitation. RESULTS: Gastric symptom scores were markedly higher in patients than in controls and improved significantly with treatment. On entry, compared to controls, gastric emptying was significantly delayed in restricters and purgers (357 +/- 25.3 and 360 +/- 13.0 min, respectively, mean +/- SEM; controls 207 +/- 9.1). After 4 and 22 wk of treatment, it improved in restricters (315 +/- 20.1 and 296 +/- 17.2 min, respectively), but not in purgers (337 +/- 14.3 and 335 +/- 15.9 min). No relationship was found between entry values of symptoms of gastric emptying and of psychopathological tests or between their variations over time. CONCLUSIONS: Gastric emptying derangement and dyspeptic symptoms are present in both subtypes of anorexia nervosa patients. Long-term rehabilitation improves gastrointestinal symptoms, gastric emptying, and psychopathological distress in an independent manner, whereas short-term refeeding does not.