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Background: An estimated 7 million episodes of severe newborn infections occur annually worldwide, with half a million newborn deaths, most occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Whilst injectable antibiotics are necessary to treat the infection, supportive care is also crucial in ending preventable mortality and morbidity. This study uses multi-country data to assess gaps in coverage, quality, and documentation of supportive care, considering implications for measurement. Methods: The EN-BIRTH study was conducted in five hospitals in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Tanzania (July 2017-July 2018). Newborns with an admission diagnosis of clinically-defined infection (sepsis, meningitis, and/or pneumonia) were included. Researchers extracted data from inpatient case notes and interviews with women (usually the mothers) as the primary family caretakers after discharge. The interviews were conducted using a structured survey questionnaire. We used descriptive statistics to report coverage of newborn supportive care components such as oxygen use, phototherapy, and appropriate feeding, and we assessed the validity of measurement through survey-reports using a random-effects model to generate pooled estimates. In this study, key supportive care components were assessment and correction of hypoxaemia, hyperbilirubinemia, and hypoglycaemia. Results: Among 1015 neonates who met the inclusion criteria, 89% had an admission clinical diagnosis of sepsis. Major gaps in documentation and care practices related to supportive care varied substantially across the participating hospitals. The pooled sensitivity was low for the survey-reported oxygen use (47%; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 30%-64%) and moderate for phototherapy (60%; 95% CI = 44%-75%). The pooled specificity was high for both the survey-reported oxygen use (85%; 95% CI = 80%-89%) and phototherapy (91%; 95% CI = 82%-97%). Conclusions: The women's reports during the exit survey consistently underestimated the coverage of supportive care components for managing infection. We have observed high variability in the inpatient documents across facilities. A standardised ward register for inpatient small and sick newborn care may capture selected supportive care data. However, tracking the detailed care will require standardised individual-level data sets linked to newborn case notes. We recommend investments in assessing the implementation aspects of a standardised inpatient register in resource-poor settings.

Background: Patients with end stage renal disease on regular hemodialysis (HD) commonly present with volume overload. This has been found to be associated with increased incidence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and chronic lung congestion.Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) on pulmonary artery pressure by echocardiography and lung congestion by lung ultrasound.Patients and Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 patients on regular haemodialysis at Nasser Institute Hospital, Cairo. Patients were divided into 2 groups: Group (I) 30 patients with IDWG < 3.5% of their dry weight, and Group (II) 30 patients with IDWG > 3.5 % of their dry weight. Results: Patients with increased IDWG > 3.5% (group 2) had pre-HD higher pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) than those with IDWG < 3.5% (group 1) and patients with IDWG > 3.5% had more change in their PAP post HD session than those with IDWG < 3.5% but no significant difference between the change after the HD session in both groups. There is a significant relation between HD duration, anemia, and hypercalcemia with PH. Patients with more increased IDWG > 3.5 % (group 2) had higher pulmonary congestion than those with IDWG < 3.5% (group 1) and patients with IDWG < 3.5% had more change in their lung congestion level after the HD session than those with IDWG > 3.5% but no statistical significance between the change in both groups. Conclusion: Increase in IDWG% over 3.5% significantly affects lung congestion and pulmonary hypertension in dialysis patients.

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) remains a significant cause of diarrhea that affects children worldwide. It is usually caused by viral agents, including rotavirus (RV), norovirus (NoV), adenovirus (AdV), astrovirus (AstV), and sapovirus (SaV), and the disease severity varies accordingly. Here, we report the association of clinical severity among AGE-infected pediatrics caused by a single viral pathogen, coinfection (viral-viral), mixed infection (viral-bacterial), and AGE-negative samples. A total of 901 pediatric patients were admitted with AGE to the Pediatric Emergency Center of Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar from June 2016 to June 2018. The age of the subjects ranged between 3 months and 14 years (median of 16 months). Virus antigens detection was performed by using Film Array Gastrointestinal (GI) Panel kit. AGE severity was assessed using the Vesikari Clinical Severity Scoring System. Multivariable multinomial logistic regression was used to model the five AGE viral agents' likelihood in relation to severity versus co-infection, mixed infection, and AGE-negative samples. AGE was most common in pediatrics aged 1-3 years (median age = 1.25 years) and more frequent in males than females, with a ratio of 1:0.8. About 19.2% of the infections were caused by NoV, followed by RV (18.2%), AdV (6.5%), SaV (2.3%), and AstV (1.8%). The majority of viral agents were detected higher in mixed infection (32.1%) than coinfection (4.9%). Based on the Vesikari score system, severe clinical illness was recorded among pediatrics infected with RV (82.2%) and NoV (75.7%). Further on multivariable analysis, compared to testing negative, the odds of detecting RV was three times significantly higher in children with severe symptoms relative to those with moderate (adjusted-odds ratio [a-OR] = 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.82-5.28). Similar results were observed when considering RV relative to co-infection and mixed infection (a-OR = 2.59; 95% CI = 1.23-5.48 and a-OR = 2.06; 1.28-3.30, respectively). About one-third of the study sample were Qatari children with AGE (33%), whereas 35% and 32% were pediatrics from the Middle East and North Africa region, excluding Qatari and nonregions. This study underlines the association of disease severity among AGE-infected pediatrics in Qatar. The overall Vesikari median score was significantly high, followed by more frequent hospitalization among RV-infected pediatrics compared to others. There was no reduction in the disease severity among RV-infected regardless of the vaccine dose.

Early prediction of cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) could permit personalized treatment adjustments for patients, which would improve treatment outcomes and patient survival. For the first time, the efficiency of quantitative computed tomography (qCT) textural and second derivative of textural (SDT) features were investigated and compared in this study. It was demonstrated that intra-tumour heterogeneity can be probed through these biomarkers and used as chemotherapy tumour response predictors in breast cancer patients prior to the start of treatment. These features were used to develop a machine learning approach which provided promising results with cross-validated AUC0.632+, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 0.86, 81%, 74% and 88%, respectively.Clinical Relevance- The results obtained in this study demonstrate the potential of textural CT biomarkers as response predictors of standard NAC before treatment initiation.

Aim: To study the relation between body composition and physical performance in elderly population..Methods: A cross sectional study conducted on 267 elderly participants 60 years old or more. All of them were subjected to assessment of body composition using anthropometric measures and Bioelectrical impedance analysis, as well as assessment of physical performance hand grip strength, 6 meters walking speed, Basic activity of daily living and Instrumental activity of daily living .Results: Study showed that elderly participants either with low skeletal muscle mass index or high fat mass percentage measured by Bioelectrical Impedance have the lowest physical performance measures. Also increased age, smoking, institutionalization and malnutrition were associated with low physical performance.Conclusions: low skeletal muscle mass index and high fat mass percentage were both risk factors of low physical performance measures. Combination of both showed the worst physical performance measures. Increasing age, institutionalization and low nutritional state were also independent risk factors of low physical performance in elderly