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The absence of suitable intervention significantly increases the likelihood of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) development in people with prediabetes. Recent statistical findings indicate that the gut microbiome might influences the development of insulin resistance. The objective of our study was to assess the efficacy and safety of probiotic supplementation in individuals diagnosed with prediabetes. A thorough search was carried out on the Cochrane Library, Medline, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases until September 12th, 2024, using a mix of pertinent keywords. This review incorporates randomized clinical trials (RCTs) concerning the effect of probiotics for prediabetes. We used random-effect models to examine the mean difference (MD). A total of eight RCTs were incorporated. The results of our meta-analysis indicated that probiotics supplementation was associated with higher reduction in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (MD -0.07% (95% CI -0.11, -0.03), p = 0.0005, I 2  = 0%) among individuals with prediabetes when compared to placebo. Other indicators such as total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and body mass index (BMI) did not differ significantly between probiotics and placebo. No significant difference was observed in the occurrence of adverse events (AEs) between the two groups. This study indicates the efficacy and safety of probiotics supplementation to improve the glycemic parameters in patients with prediabetes., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics Approval: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis study. The Faculty of Medicine, Pelita Harapan University Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required. Consent to Participate: Not applicable. Consent to Publish: Not applicable. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a leading cause of death worldwide and has a high cost of treatment. Studies have indicated that a combination of waist circumference (WC) and triglyceride (TG) levels can be used to determine the risk of CKD. This study analyzes the risk of CKD using four phenotype models based on WC and TG., Methods: This meta-analysis analyzes 113,019 participants from 13 studies. We conducted relevant literature searches in the Europe PMC, Medline, and Scopus databases using specific keywords. The results obtained were pooled into odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effects models., Results: Our pooled analysis revealed that the highest significant independent association was between CKD and the high WC-high TG phenotype (adjusted OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.39 to 1.88; P <0.00001; I 2 =59%), followed by the high WC-normal TG phenotype (adjusted OR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.57; P =0.001; I 2 =67%), and the normal WC-high TG phenotype (adjusted OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.37; P =0.005; I 2 =29%) when the normal WC-normal TG phenotype was taken as the reference., Conclusion: Our study suggests that phenotype models based on WC and TG can be used as screening tools to predict the risk of CKD. Our results also indicate that WC plays a larger role than TG in the CKD risk. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm the results of our study.

Background: Laboratory testing is commonly performed in patients with COVID-19. Each of the laboratory parameters has potential value for risk stratification and prediction of COVID-19 outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the difference between these parameters in severe and nonsevere disease and to provide the optimal cutoff value for predicting severe disease., Method: We performed a systematic literature search through electronic databases. The variables of interest were serum procalcitonin, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in each group of severity outcomes from COVID-19., Results: There were a total of 4848 patients from 23 studies. Our meta-analysis suggest that patients with severe COVID-19 infections have higher procalcitonin, (mean difference 0.07; 95% CI 0.05-0.10; p < 0.00001), CRP (mean difference 36.88; 95% CI 29.10-44.65; p < 0.00001), D-Dimer (mean difference 0.43; 95% CI 0.31-0.56; p < 0.00001), and LDH (mean difference 102.79; 95% CI 79.10-126.49; p < 0.00001) but lower levels of albumin (mean difference -4.58; 95% CI -5.76 to -3.39; p < 0.00001) than those with nonsevere COVID-19 infections. The cutoff values for the parameters were 0.065 ng/mL for procalcitonin, 38.85 g/L for albumin, 33.55 mg/L for CRP, 0.635 μ/L for D-dimer, and 263.5 U/L for LDH, each with high sensitivity and specificity., Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests elevated procalcitonin, CRP, D-dimer, and LDH and decreased albumin can be used for predicting severe outcomes in COVID-19., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest regarding this article., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

At the end of 2019, a viral pneumonia disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), emerged in Wuhan, China. This novel disease rapidly spread at an alarming rate that as a result, it has now been declared pandemic by the World Health Organization. Although this infective disease is mostly characterized by respiratory tract symptoms, increasing numbers of evidence had shown considerable amounts of patients with cardiovascular involvements and these were associated with higher mortality among COVID-19 patients. Cardiac involvement as a possible late phenomenon of the viral respiratory infection is an issue that should be anticipated in patients with COVID-19. Cardiovascular manifestation in COVID-19 patients include myocardial injury (MI), arrhythmias, cardiac arrests, heart failure and coagulation abnormality, ranging from 7.2% up to 33%. The mechanism of cardiac involvement in COVID-19 patients involves direct injury to myocardial cells mediated by angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors as suggested by some studies, while the other studies suggest that systemic inflammation causing indirect myocyte injury may also play a role. Combination of proper triage, close monitoring, and avoidance of some drugs that have cardiovascular toxicity are important in the management of cardiovascular system involvement in COVID-19 patients. The involvement of the cardiovascular system in COVID-19 patients is prevalent, variable, and debilitating. Therefore, it requires our attention and comprehensive management., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2020 The Authors.)