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COVID‑19 In Pregnancy
COVID-19 infection in pregnancy is associated with several pregnancy complications. However, pregnancy does not appear to increase the susceptibility of becoming infected by COVID-19. Recommendations for the prevention of COVID-19 include the same measures as non-pregnant people. Effect of COVID-19 in pregnancy According to a systematic review and meta-analysis in 2021, COVID-19 is associated with stillbirth, pre-eclampsia and preterm birth. According to the same review, compared with mild COVID-19, severe COVID-19 is strongly associated with preeclampsia, preterm birth, gestational diabetes and low birth weight. A review in 2022 suggests that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease, with an increased rate of being hospitalized to the intensive care unit and requiring ventilation death, but was not associated with a statistically significant increase in mortality. A systematic review update in 2022 demonstrated that pregnant women are at increased ris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Risk Factor
In epidemiology, a risk factor or determinant is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Due to a lack of harmonization across disciplines, determinant, in its more widely accepted scientific meaning, is often used as a synonym. The main difference lies in the realm of practice: medicine (clinical practice) versus public health. As an example from clinical practice, low ingestion of dietary sources of vitamin C is a known risk factor for developing scurvy. Specific to public health policy, a determinant is a health risk that is general, abstract, related to inequalities, and difficult for an individual to control. For example, poverty is known to be a determinant of an individual's standard of health. Risk factors may be used to identify high-risk people. Correlation vs causation Risk factors or determinants are correlational and not necessarily causal, because correlation does not prove causation. For example, being young cannot be said to caus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DNA Methylation
DNA methylation is a biological process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule. Methylation can change the activity of a DNA segment without changing the sequence. When located in a gene promoter (genetics), promoter, DNA methylation typically acts to repress gene Transcription (genetics), transcription. In mammals, DNA methylation is essential for normal development and is associated with a number of key processes including genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, repression of transposable elements, aging, and carcinogenesis. As of 2016, two nucleobases have been found on which natural, enzymatic DNA methylation takes place: adenine and cytosine. The modified bases are N6-methyladenine,D. B. Dunn, J. D. Smith: "The occurrence of 6-methylaminopurine in deoxyribonucleic acids". In: ''Biochem J.'' 68(4), Apr 1958, S. 627–636. [//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13522672?dopt=Abstract PMID 13522672]. . 5-methylcytosineB. F. Vanyushin, S. G. Tkacheva, A. N. Belozers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cholinergic Anti-inflammatory Pathway
The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway regulates the innate immune response to injury, pathogens, and tissue ischemia. It is the efferent, or motor arm of the inflammatory reflex, the neural circuit that responds to and regulates the inflammatory response. Regulating the immune response In 1987, a study showed that administration of armin, an irreversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, by injection 24 hours before sepsis modelling invoked essential depression of a lethality of mice from experimental infectious process. Later (in 1995) this data has been confirmed at cholinergic stimulation by other cholinomimetics. Inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase can cause higher accessibility of acetylcholine and activation of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway as well. Tumor necrosis factors ( TNF) (and other cytokines) are produced by cells of the innate immune system during local injury and infection. These contribute to initiating a cascade of mediator release, and recruiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood–brain Barrier
The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective semipermeable membrane, semipermeable border of endothelium, endothelial cells that regulates the transfer of solutes and chemicals between the circulatory system and the central nervous system, thus protecting the brain from harmful or unwanted substances in the blood. The blood–brain barrier is formed by endothelial cells of the Capillary, capillary wall, astrocyte end-feet ensheathing the capillary, and pericytes embedded in the capillary basement membrane. This system allows the passage of some small molecules by passive transport, passive diffusion, as well as the selective and active transport of various nutrients, ions, organic anions, and macromolecules such as glucose and amino acids that are crucial to neural function. The blood–brain barrier restricts the passage of pathogens, the diffusion of solutes in the blood, and Molecular mass, large or Hydrophile, hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid, while a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angiotensin-converting Enzyme 2
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is an enzyme that can be found either attached to the membrane of cells (mACE2) in the intestines, kidney, testis, gallbladder, and heart or in a soluble form (sACE2). Both membrane bound and soluble ACE2 are integral parts of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) that exists to keep the body's blood pressure in check. mACE2 is cleaved by the enzyme ADAM17 in a process regulated by substrate presentation. ADAM17 cleavage releases the extracellular domain creating soluble ACE2 (sACE2). ACE2 enzyme activity opposes the classical arm of the RAAS by lowering blood pressure through catalyzing the hydrolysis of angiotensin II (a vasoconstrictor peptide which raises blood pressure) into angiotensin (1–7) (a vasodilator). Angiotensin (1-7) in turns binds to MasR receptors creating localized vasodilation and hence decreasing blood pressure. This decrease in blood pressure makes the entire process a promising drug target for tre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syncytiotrophoblast
The syncytiotrophoblast (from the Greek 'syn'- "together"; 'cytio'- "of cells"; 'tropho'- "nutrition"; 'blast'- "bud") is the epithelial covering of the highly vascular embryonic placental villi, which invades the wall of the uterus to establish nutrient circulation between the embryo and the mother. It is a multinucleate, terminally differentiated syncytium, extending to 13cm. Function It is the outer layer of the trophoblasts and actively invades the uterine wall, during implantation, rupturing maternal capillaries and thus establishing an interface between maternal blood and embryonic extracellular fluid, facilitating passive exchange of material between the mother and the embryo. The syncytial property is important since the mother's immune system includes white blood cells that are able to migrate into tissues by "squeezing" in between cells. If they were to reach the fetal side of the placenta, many foreign proteins would be recognized, triggering an immune reaction. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cardiac Physiology
Cardiac physiology or heart function is the study of healthy, unimpaired function of the heart: involving blood flow; Cardiac muscle, myocardium structure; the electrical conduction system of the heart; the cardiac cycle and cardiac output and how these interact and depend on one another. Blood flow The heart functions as a pump and acts as a double pump in the cardiovascular system to provide a continuous circulation of blood throughout the body. This circulation includes the systemic circulation and the pulmonary circulation. Both circuits transport blood but they can also be seen in terms of the gases they carry. The pulmonary circulation collects oxygen from the lungs and delivers carbon dioxide for exhalation. The systemic circuit transports oxygen to the body and returns relatively de-oxygenated blood and carbon dioxide to the pulmonary circuit. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of mental conditions negatively affecting the development of the nervous system, which includes the human brain, brain and spinal cord. According to the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, (DSM-5) published in 2013, these conditions generally appear in ''early'' childhood, usually before children start school, and can persist into adulthood. The key characteristic of all these disorders is that they negatively impact a person's functioning in one or more domains of life (personal, social, academic, occupational) depending on the disorder and deficits it has caused. All of these disorders and their levels of impairment exist on a spectrum, and affected individuals can experience varying degrees of symptoms and deficits, despite having the same diagnosis. The DSM-5 classifies neurodevelopmental disorders into six overarching groups: Intellectual disability, intellectual, Comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Government Response To COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, the government of the People's Republic of China under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping's Xi Jinping Administration, administration pursued a zero-COVID strategy to prevent the domestic spread of COVID-19 until late 2022. Aspects of the response have been controversial, with the zero-COVID approach being praised and the government's lack of transparency, censorship, and spread of misinformation being criticized. The government abandoned its zero-COVID policy on 7 December 2022. After discovery of a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown Cause (medicine), etiology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, a public notice on the outbreak was distributed on 31 December 2019. Three days earlier on 28 December 2019, Chinese researchers in Beijing uploaded a fully mapped sequence of COVID-19's structure to the National Institutes of Health, NIH GenBank, but the report was never publicly accessible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Situs Inversus
''Situs inversus'' (also called ''situs transversus'' or ''oppositus'') is a Congenital disorder, congenital condition in which the major Organ (anatomy), visceral organs are reversed or mirror image, mirrored from their normal positions. The normal arrangement of internal organs is known as ''situs solitus''. Although cardiac problems are more common, many people with ''situs inversus'' have no medical symptoms or complications resulting from the condition, and until the advent of modern medicine, it was usually undiagnosed. ''Situs inversus'' is found in about 0.01% of the population, or about 1 person in 10,000. In the most common situation, ''situs inversus totalis'', it involves complete transposition (right to left reversal) of all of the viscera. The heart is not in its usual position in the left chest, but is on the right, a condition known as ''dextrocardia'' (). Because the relationship between the organs is not changed, most people with ''situs inversus'' have no associa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comorbidity
In medicine, comorbidity refers to the simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions in a patient; often co-occurring (that is, concomitant or concurrent) with a primary condition. It originates from the Latin term (meaning "sickness") prefixed with ("together") and suffixed with ''-ity'' (to indicate a state or condition). Comorbidity includes all additional ailments a patient may experience alongside their primary diagnosis, which can be either physiological or psychological in nature. In the context of mental health, comorbidity frequently refers to the concurrent existence of mental disorders, for example, the co-occurrence of depressive and anxiety disorders. The concept of multimorbidity is related to comorbidity but is different in its definition and approach, focusing on the presence of multiple diseases or conditions in a patient without the need to specify one as primary. Definition The term "comorbid" has three definitions: # to indicate a medical con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
