10/26/2024


Treatment with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in COVID-19 is frequent. Shortage of Intensive care unit (ICU) beds led clinicians to deliver NIV also outside intensive care units (ICUs). Data about the use of NIV in COVID-19 is limited.

To describe the prevalence and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 treated with NIV outside the ICUs. To investigate the factors associated with NIV failure (need for intubation or death).

In this prospective single day observational study, we enrolled adult COVID-19 patients, treated with NIV outside the ICU from thirty-one hospitals in Lombardy, Italy.

We collected data on demographic, clinical characteristics, ventilatory management and patients' outcome. Of 8753 COVID-19 patients present in the hospitals on the study day, 909 (10%) were receiving NIV outside the ICU. 778/909 (85%) patients were treated with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), delivered by helmet in 617 (68%). NIV failed in 300 patients (37.6%), while 498 (62.4%) were discharged alive without intubation. Overall mortality was 25%. NIV failure occurred in 152/284 (53%) patients with a PaO2/FiO2 ratio < 150 mmHg. Higher C-reactive protein, lower PaO2/FiO2, and platelet counts were independently associated with increased risk of NIV failure.

The use of NIV outside the ICUs, in COVID-19 was common, with a predominant use of helmet CPAP, with a rate of success greater than 60% and close to 75% in full treatment patients. C-reactive protein, PaO2/FiO2, platelet counts were independently associated with increased risk of NIV failure. Clinical trial registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04382235).
The use of NIV outside the ICUs, in COVID-19 was common, with a predominant use of helmet CPAP, with a rate of success greater than 60% and close to 75% in full treatment patients. C-reactive protein, PaO2/FiO2, platelet counts were independently associated with increased risk of NIV failure. Clinical trial registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04382235).Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have become recognized contaminants and pose a high public health risk. The animal gut microbiota is a reservoir of ARGs, but the knowledge of the origin and dissemination of ARGs remains unclear. In this study, we provide a comprehensive profile of ARGs and mobile genetic elements in the gut microbiota from 30 bovines to study the impact of modern antibiotics on resistance. A total of 42 ARG types were detected by annotating the metagenomic sequencing data from Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD). We found that the diversity and abundance of ARGs in individual yaks were significantly lower than those in dairy and beef cattle (p  less then  0.0001). The results of heat map and single nucleotide polymorphism clustering suggest that ARGs from dairy and beef cattle are more similar, whereas those from yaks cluster separately. The long-term use of antibiotics may contribute to this difference, suggesting that antibiotic consumption is the main cause of ARG prevalence. Furthermore, abundant insertions were also found in this study, signifying a strong potential for horizontal transfer of ARGs among microbes, especially pathogens.Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are zoonotic foodborne pathogens that are capable of causing serious human illness. Ovine ruminants are recognized as an important source of STEC and a notable contributor to contamination within the food industry. This review examined the prevalence of STEC in the ovine food production chain from farm-to-fork, reporting carriage in sheep herds, during abattoir processing, and in raw and ready-to-eat meats and meat products. Factors affecting the prevalence of STEC, including seasonality and animal age, were also examined. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/forskolin.html A relative prevalence can be obtained by calculating the mean prevalence observed over multiple surveys, weighted by sample number. A relative mean prevalence was obtained for STEC O157 and all STEC serogroups at multiple points along the ovine production chain by using suitable published surveys. A relative mean prevalence (and range) for STEC O157 was calculated for feces 4.4% (0.2-28.1%), fleece 7.6% (0.8-12.8%), carcass 2.1% (0.2-9.8%), and raw ovine meat 1.9% (0.2-6.3%). For all STEC independent of serotype, a relative mean prevalence was calculated for feces 33.3% (0.9-90.0%), carcass 58.7% (2.0-81.6%), and raw ovine meat 15.4% (2.7-35.5%). The prevalence of STEC in ovine fleece was reported in only one earlier survey, which recorded a prevalence of 86.2%. Animal age was reported to affect shedding in many surveys, with younger animals typically reported as having a higher prevalence of the pathogen. The prevalence of STEC decreases significantly along the ovine production chain after the application of postharvest interventions. Ovine products pose a small risk of potential STEC contamination to the food supply chain.As primary carriers of epigenetic information and gatekeepers of genomic DNA, nucleosomes are essential for proper growth and development of all eukaryotic cells. Although they are intrinsically dynamic, nucleosomes are actively reorganized by ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers. Chromatin remodelers contain helicase-like ATPase motor domains that can translocate along DNA, and a long-standing question in the field is how this activity is used to reposition or slide nucleosomes. In addition to ratcheting along DNA like their helicase ancestors, remodeler ATPases appear to dictate specific alternating geometries of the DNA duplex, providing an unexpected means for moving DNA past the histone core. Emerging evidence supports twist-based mechanisms for ATP-driven repositioning of nucleosomes along DNA. In this review, we discuss core experimental findings and ideas that have shaped the view of how nucleosome sliding may be achieved.The novel coronavirus 2019 pandemic has brought about an overabundance of misinformation concerning the virus (SARS-CoV-2) and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) it causes spreading rapidly on social media. While some more obviously untrustworthy sources may be easier for social media filters to identify and remove, an early feature was the cobranding of COVID-19 misinformation with other types of misinformation. To examine this, the top 10 Instagram posts (in English) were collected every day for 10 days (April 21-30th, 2020) for each of the hashtags #hoax, #governmentlies, and #plandemic. The #hoax was selected first as it is commonly used in conspiracy theory posts, and #governmentlies because it was the most commonly cotagged with #hoax. For comparison, we selected #plandemic as the most popular cotagged hashtag that was clearly COVID-19-related. This resulted in 300 Instagram posts available for our analysis. We conducted a content analysis by coding the themes contained in the posts, both for the images and the text caption shared by the Instagram users (including hashtags).