Tracheostomy in a patient with COVID-19: a case report.

Some of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with prolonged ventilation may require tracheostomy, which is an aerosol-generating procedure and poses a significant risk of viral transmission. We report our experience of the management of a patient with COVID-19 who underwent surgical tracheostomy and describe several essential infection control principles. In our patient, on the 14th day after intubation, an open tracheostomy was carried out because of the prolonged tracheal intubation and unsuccessful extubation attempts.

Complications of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: Our Experience from a Retrospective Analysis.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the intraoperative and postoperative complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, as well as the frequency of conversions.

Material And Methods: Medical records of 740 patients who had laparoscopic cholecystectomy were analysed retrospectively. We evaluated patients for the presence of potential risk factors that could predict the development of complications such as age, gender, body mass index, white blood cell count and C-reactive protein (CRP), gallbladder ultrasonographic findings, and pathohistological analysis of removed gallbladders.

Fetal and maternal plasma leptin levels during the second half of normal pregnancies and those with Down syndrome.

Objective: To assess the correlation of fetal and maternal plasma leptin concentrations during the second half of uncomplicated, euploid pregnancies and to compare these values with those obtained from pregnancies with Down syndrome.

Methods: Paired maternal venous and fetal umbilical blood samples were obtained during cordocentesis in 36 uncomplicated, euploid pregnancies and nine pregnancies with Down syndrome fetuses. Concentrations of leptin were measured by sensitive radioimmunoassay.

Amino acid (GAS:BCAA) ratios in plasma and gut contents of short-term protein depleted rats.

The ratio of total concentrations or molar ratios (moles/1,000 amino acid residues) of three non-essential amino acids (glycine, alanine, serine-GAS) and three essential-branched chain amino acids (valine, isoleucine, leucine-BCAA) were investigated in rat systemic and portal vein plasma and jejunal and ileal gut contents after feeding normoprotein (NP) or protein-free (PF) diets for 7 days. Amino acid analysis of gut content showed that the GAS:BCAA ratio was not significantly altered by the PF diet either in the jejunum or in the ileum. On the contrary, the PF diet, caused a three and four-fold increase in this ratio in the portal and systemic plasma, respectively.