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Lung infiltrates are frequently observed in patients with COVID-19 infection and require specialized management. Identifying reliable laboratory parameters to reduce the need for chest CT scans in non-desaturation patients is of great interest. This study aimed to investigate the potential of C-reactive protein (CRP) as an indicator to identify the presence of lung infiltrates in early COVID-19 infection. The study was conducted at Al-Azhar University hospitals from May 2021 to March 2022 and included 210 patients with COVID-19 infection confirmed by positive PCR, all of whom were previously healthy, non-smokers, and non-hypoxemic. CRP levels were assessed and correlated with lung infiltrates observed in CT chest examinations. The mean value of CRP was 40.3±14.3 mg/L in males and 36.6±15.2 mg/L among females. One hundred sixty-two patients had pneumonic infiltrates, while 48 had no infiltrates. The mean value of CRP was 45.02±10.2 mg/L in patients with radiological infiltrates and 18.8±7.8 mg/L in patients without radiological infiltrates. Based on our findings, a CRP value greater than 29.8 mg/L was suggested as a cut-off value to indicate the presence of lung infiltrates. CRP is a simple laboratory marker that, at certain limits, may point to the presence of pneumonic infiltrates in early non-hypoxemic patients with COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) poses a significant morbidity and mortality risk to critically ill COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, predictors, and outcomes of AKI in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with critically ill COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: A multicenter retrospective study in Saudi Arabia of adult patients aged at least 18 years diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia and admitted to the intensive care unit between May 2020 and May 2021 was conducted. The occurrence of AKI and associated risk factors, the need for continous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), and the outcome were reported. Results: The study included 340 patients admitted to the ICU with COVID-19. Their mean age was 66.7±13.4 years, ranging from 49 to 84 years, and most of them were men (63.8%). The most common concomitant diseases were hypertension (71.5%), diabetes (62.4%), IHD (37.6%), CKD (20%), heart failure (19.4%), and 81.2% suffered from ARDS. AKI occurred in 60.3% of patients, 38% were stage 1, 16.6% were stage 2, and 45.4% were stage 3. Approximately, 39% of patients required CRRT, out of which 76.2% were stage 3, which was significantly higher than the other stages (p<0.001). AKI patients suffered significantly from asthma and had lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and higher creatinine levels than patients without AKI (p<0.05 all). The overall mortality rate was 39.4%, and the mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with AKI than in patients without AKI (48.3% versus 25.9%; p<0.001). Conclusion: AKI is common in adults admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 and is associated with an increased risk of death. Early detection of AKI and appropriate treatment can positively impact COVID-19 outcome. CRRT is the preferred dialysis method in critically ill ICU patients with AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article provides, through the life and teachings of a little-known German scholar of religions named Frederic Spiegelberg (1897-1994), a novel account of some of the unique historical and intellectual developments that converged in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid twentieth century and subsequently informed and enabled many of the defining chapters of recent global history. Separately, these developments are known as the dissemination in the West of Asian religious perspectives and practices, the San Francisco Renaissance, the rise of the counterculture, the widespread blossoming of environmental awareness, and the information age revolution. Together, they comprise The New Myth: synchronous with and in reaction to the planetary spread of technology and the global experiential horizons such technology discloses, a constellation of holistic integral thought emerged in various domains in the West that was characterized above all by a spatiotemporal emphasis on the 'Here and Now' and the realization of unity through the recognition and transcendence of polarity. The origins, afterlives, and implications of this constellation of thought are only now being discerned. The story of Professor Frederick Spiegelberg's life-little known and largely forgotten-functions as the conduit through which the New Myth's historical and intellectual contours are traced and thereby rendered intelligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The most common causes of morbid adherent placenta (MAP) include hysterectomies, excessive blood loss, and bladder injuries. Placental trophoblasts that penetrate the endometrium past the Nitabuch layer of decidua basalis cause placenta accreta, while placental trophoblasts that penetrate the myometrium cause placenta increta. Objectives: To evaluate the role of the multislice 3D color flow Doppler in the diagnosis of MAP in relation to intrapartum findings and the mean value of placental volume vascularization index (VI) and flow index (FI) and vascularization flow index (VFI). Patients and Methods: This was a prospective study that included 41 pregnant women at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Menoufia University Hospital, from December 2021 till March 2023. Results: Cutoff point of placental (VI) as a marker in prediction of placental invasion among cases was 23.760, with sensitivity of 94.1%, specificity of 95.8% at AUC of 0.771. Cutoff point of placenta (FI) as a marker in prediction of placental invasion among cases was 32.405, with sensitivity of 88.2%, specificity of 83.3% at AUC of 0.513. Cutoff point of placental (VFI) as a marker in prediction of placental invasion among cases was 9.305, with sensitivity of 94.1%, specificity of 95.8% at AUC of 0.749. Conclusion: among the 3D color flow Doppler indices, VI had the best index in prediction of placental invasion, followed by VFI while FI had the lowest. Additionally, loss of sonolucency was the most 3D multislice color flow Doppler in the diagnosis of MAP with accuracy 92.3%, followed by placental lacunae with accuracy 84.5%, then abnormal uterine serosa bladder line by 80.55% of accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]