Digestive Disease Mortality Dynamics During New Coronavirus Infection Pandemic in Different Subjects of Russian Federation

Aim. An analysis of digestive disease mortality dynamics in different subjects of the Russian Federation in course of the new coronavirus infection pandemic.Key points. In most subjects of the Russian Federation, the first half of 2021 enduring the COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed a higher overall mortality from digestive diseases and from peptic ulcer, liver and pancreatic illnesses compared to the same period in 2020. This situation may have roots in both the adverse impact of coronavirus infection on pre-existing digestive diseases and shortages in providing specialty medical aid to gastroenterological patients during the pandemic. Improved outpatient care and remote counselling, as well as successful educational measures, may reduce gastroenterological disease-associated mortality.Conclusion. Most regions of Russia have registered a growing mortality from digestive diseases at the new coronavirus infection pandemic due to the SARS-CoV-2 adverse impact on illness progression, as well as imposed difficulties in providing specialty medical aid.

CLINICAL FEATURES AND OUTCOME IN CHILDREN WITH LANGERHANS CELL HISTIOCYTOSIS. A SINGLE INSTITUTION EXPERIENCE FROM PAKISTAN

Objective: To find out the clinical manifestations, treatment given and outcome of children with diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Study Design: Retrospective observational study. Place and Duration of Study: Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, Lahore Pakistan, from Jan 2005 to Dec 2015. Methodology: Medical charts were reviewed in detail along with the available imaging for the patients. The data included age at the time of diagnosis, extent of the disease, involvement of risk organs, treatment given, response at 6th week of chemotherapy and at the end of the treatment, and outcome in terms of disease progression during the treatment, relapse of disease on follow up and cause of death either due to treatment related mortality or disease complications. Results: There were 29 patients, 12 patients (41%) had single system and 17 (58%) had multisystem involvement. 7 patients (41%) had risk organ involvement in the multisystem group. All the patients of multisystem and 6 patients of single system were treated according to the Langerhans cell histiocytosis III protocol. Commonest sites of involvement were bone in 22 (75%), followed by lymph nodes in 18 (62%) patients. Disease relapse was seen in 6 patients and all of them had multisystem disease. Mortality was observed only in multisystem Langerhans cell histiocytosis patients and more than 50% were risk organ positive. Conclusion: Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a highly heterogeneous disease. Some forms are curable without chemotherapy, while the multisystem disease requires aggressive treatment. However, despite intensive treatment, the multisystem disease and risk organs involved have poor...........

Changes in mortality trends amongst common diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

Objective: It has been found that COVID-19 increases deaths within common diseases in countries that have implemented strict lockdowns. In order to elucidate the proper national response to a pandemic, the mortality rates within COVID-19 and various diseases need to be studied in countries whose pandemic response differ. Sweden represents a country with lax pandemic restrictions, and we aimed to study the effects of COVID-19 on historical mortality rates within common diseases during 2020. Methods: Regression models and moving averages were used to predict expected premature mortality per the ICD-10 during 2020 using historical data sets. Predicted values were then compared to recorded premature mortality to identify changes in mortality trends. Results: Seasonal increased mortality was found within neurological diseases. Infectious diseases, tumours and cardiac disease mortality rates decreased compared to expected outcome. Conclusions: Changes in mortality trends were observed for several common diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neurological and cardiac conditions, infections and tumours are examples of diseases that were heavily affected by the pandemic. The indirect effects of COVID-19 on certain patient populations should be considered when determining pandemic impact.

Personalized models of breast cancer desmoplasia reveal biomechanical determinants of drug penetration

Breast cancer desmoplasia heterogeneity contributes to high disease mortality due to discrepancies in treatment efficacy between patients. Personalized in vitro breast cancer models can be used for high throughput testing and ranking of therapeutic strategies to normalize the aberrant microenvironment in a patient-specific manner. Here, tumoroids assembled from patient-derived cells cultured in microphysiological systems including perfusable microvasculature reproduce key aspects of stromal and vascular dysfunction. Increased hyaluronic acid and collagen deposition, loss of vascular glycocalyx and reduced perfusion, and elevated interstitial fluid pressure in the models result in impaired drug distribution to tumor cells. We demonstrate the application of these personalized models as tools to rank molecular therapies for the normalization of the tumoroid microenvironment and to discover new therapeutic targets such as IL8 and CD44, which may ultimately improve drug efficacy in breast cancer patients.

State Declines in Heart Disease Mortality in the United States, 2000–2019

This report examines changes in heart disease death rates for 2000–2019 in the United States and for all states and the District of Columbia.

Modeling on Social Health Literacy Level Prediction

Nowadays, the health level of residents has become the focus of people’s attention. Under the background of the development of health service from “disease-centered” to “health-centered,” it is very important to improve the level of urban health and clarify the factors affecting urban health. Therefore, this paper quantifies the relationship between residents’ health literacy level and environment, average life expectancy, infectious disease mortality, and other indicators by selecting appropriate indicators and establishing a mathematical model. Based on the reciprocal linear combination of the collected index data and the corresponding health level value, the prediction model of social health literacy level (SPM) was established, and the qualitative prediction and quantitative analysis of citizens’ health literacy level were studied in depth. Based on the SPM model, we can roughly predict the level of health literacy in a region only based on the main variables identified in this paper. The consistency of the experiment shows that the model is effective and robust, and it reveals that environmental factors are the most important factors affecting residents’ health literacy level. The actual data show that THE SPM model is a timely and reasonable framework to measure the health literacy level of residents.