Publications by authors named "Ottiger M"

Article Synopsis
  • Rehabilitation is vital for helping post-COVID patients regain work capability and re-enter the workforce, but its effects on work ability and return to work (RTW) are not well understood.
  • This study observed 114 post-COVID patients before and 12 months after rehabilitation, analyzing factors like exercise capacity, physical activity, and mental health in relation to work outcomes.
  • Results showed that most patients had poor work ability post-rehabilitation, with fatigue being the leading factor affecting their likelihood of returning to work; 48.6% successfully returned to work after a year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rehabilitation is an effective and feasible approach for post-COVID patients to improve physical health. However, knowledge regarding the long-term impact of rehabilitation on the physical health of these patients is lacking. Changes in physical health of 127 patients with COVID-19 as an occupational disease or work accident were assessed in a longitudinal observational study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In addition to several sequelae of post-COVID-19, individuals also experience significant limitations in work ability, resulting in negative consequences for the return-to-work (RTW) process. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the impact of post-COVID-19 on work ability and RTW of individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: Studies on the work ability and RTW of patients with post-COVID-19 (more than 12 weeks after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection) were regarded eligible for inclusion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: An infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to persistent symptoms more than three months after the acute infection and has also an impact on patients' physical activity behaviour and sleep quality. There is evidence, that inpatient post-COVID rehabilitation can improve physical capacity and mental health impairments, but less is known about the change in physical behaviour and sleep quality.

Methods: This longitudinal observational study used accelerometery to assess the level of physical activity and sleep quality before and after an inpatient rehabilitation program.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Workers, especially healthcare workers, are exposed to an increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, less is known about the impact of rehabilitation on health outcomes associated with post-COVID. This longitudinal observational study examined the changes in physical and neuropsychological health and work ability after inpatient rehabilitation of 127 patients (97 females/30 males; age 21-69 years; Mean = 50.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phosphine could be a key molecule in the understanding of exotic chemistry that occurs in (exo)planetary atmospheres. While phosphine has been detected in the Solar System's giant planets, it has not been observed in exoplanets to date. In the exoplanetary context, however, it has been theorized to be a potential biosignature molecule.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Refugee mothers are exposed to multiple sources of psychological distress given their migration histories and the experience of motherhood in a foreign country and often in social isolation. "Aacho" ("Arriving") is a psychoanalytic-oriented group therapy for refugee mothers with babies and toddlers in Switzerland.The present pilot study evaluated "Aacho" concomitantly and explored changes in the mothers' symptom burden, in the developmental status of their children, and in the quality of mother-child interaction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The determination of cell viability is essential to many areas of life sciences and biotechnology. Typically, cell viability measurements are based on the optical analysis of stained cells, which requires additional labeling steps and is hard to implement online. Frequency-dependent impedance flow cytometry (IFC) provides a label-free, fast, and reliable alternative to determine cell viability at the single cell level based on the Coulter principle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adrenal hormone metabolite levels are altered in acute illnesses such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Our aim was to investigate associations of sex and mineralocorticoid hormone metabolites with short- and long-term mortality and severity of CAP in male and female patients.

Methods: We prospectively followed 285 patients (60.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metabolomics is a rapidly growing area of research. Metabolomic markers can provide information about the interaction of different organ systems, and thereby improve the understanding of physio-pathological processes, disease risk, prognosis and therapy responsiveness in a variety of diseases. Areas covered: In this narrative review of recent clinical studies investigating metabolomic markers in adult patients presenting with acute infectious disease, we mainly focused on patients with sepsis and lower respiratory tract infections.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The release of hormones from the adrenal gland is vital in acute and chronic illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) involving recurrent exacerbations. Using a metabolomic approach, we aim to investigate associations of different adrenal hormone metabolites with short- and long-term mortality in COPD patients.

Methods: We prospectively followed 172 COPD patients (median age 75 years, 62% male) from a previous Swiss multicenter trial.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The gut, microflora-dependent metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has emerged as a dietary-associated risk factor for incident cardiovascular events. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a prevalent disease worldwide with a high associated risk for cardiovascular disease and death due to an infectious cause.

Aims: To study whether TMAO is predictive for adverse clinical outcomes in patients with exacerbated COPD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is an activation of the L-arginine nitric oxide pathway. Pulmonary obstruction causes to elevated nitric oxide (NO) levels, which lead to higher production of the NO-inhibiting metabolites asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA).

Methods: We investigated the association of L-arginine, ADMA, and SDMA with clinical outcomes in a well-defined observational cohort of 150 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/introduction: Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) metabolizes tryptophan to kynurenine. An increase of its activity is associated with severity in patients with pneumonia. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, an elevation of serotonin has been reported.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress axis plays a crucial role in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), with high cortisol being associated with disease severity and corticosteroid treatment resulting in earlier time to recovery. Our aim in the present study was to compare different glucocorticoid hormones, including cortisol, 11-deoxycortisol, cortisone, and corticosterone, regarding their association with short- and long-term adverse outcomes in a well-defined CAP cohort.

Methods: We prospectively followed 285 patients with CAP from a previous Swiss multicenter trial for a median of 6.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: During infection, there is an activation of the L-arginine-nitric-oxide pathway, with a shift from nitric oxide synthesis to a degradation of L-arginine to its metabolites, asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA and SDMA). However, the prognostic implications for short-term or long-term survival remains unclear. We investigated the association of L-arginine, ADMA, and SDMA with adverse clinical outcomes in a well-defined cohort of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: As part of the immune defense during infection, an increase in enzyme activity of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) leads to a breakdown of tryptophan to kynurenine. In previous animal studies, therapeutic antagonism of IDO resulted in reduced sepsis mortality. We investigated the prognostic ability of tryptophan, serotonin, kynurenine and IDO (represented by the ratio of kynurenine/tryptophan) to predict adverse clinical outcomes in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Sepsis negatively affects capillary function and oxygen delivery, potentially worsening patient outcomes.
  • Lower levels of immunoglobulin G2 do not contribute to severe flu complications, suggesting other factors may play a role in flu severity.
  • New research indicates that intravenous immunoglobulin may provide brain protection during sepsis by blocking harmful immune responses such as complement activation and apoptosis. *
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: An efficient and reliable method to estimate plant cell viability, especially of pollen, is important for plant breeding research and plant production processes. Pollen quality is determined by classical methods, like staining techniques or in vitro pollen germination, each having disadvantages with respect to reliability, analysis speed, and species dependency. Analysing single cells based on their dielectric properties by impedance flow cytometry (IFC) has developed into a common method for cellular characterisation in microbiology and medicine during the last decade.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The pro-atherosclerotic metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) is a risk factor for incident cardiovascular events and a potentially modifiable mediator of chronic inflammation through broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment by changing the microbiome. Whether TMAO is associated with adverse clinical outcomes in acute inflammatory community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients is unknown.

Methods: A total of 317 CAP patients from a previous Swiss multicenter trial were prospectively followed for a median of 6.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Copeptin, the C-terminal part of the arginine vasopressin (AVP) precursor peptide, is secreted in response to stress and correlates with adverse clinical outcomes in the acute-care hospital setting. There are no comprehensive data regarding its prognostic value in the community. We evaluated associations of copeptin levels with 10-year mortality in patients visiting their general practitioner (GP) for a respiratory infection included in a previous trial.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Most clinical research investigated prognostic biomarkers for their ability to predict cardiovascular events or mortality. It is unknown whether biomarkers allow prediction of quality of life (QoL) after survival of the acute event. Herein, we investigated the prognostic potential of well-established inflammatory/cardiovascular blood biomarkers including white blood cells (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), pro-adrenomedullin (proADM) and pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (proANP) in regard to a decline in QoL in a well-defined cohort of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metabolic profiling through targeted quantification of a predefined subset of metabolites, performed by mass spectrometric analytical techniques, allows detailed investigation of biological pathways and thus may provide information about the interaction of different organic systems, ultimately improving understanding of disease risk and prognosis in a variety of diseases. Early risk assessment, in turn, may improve patient management in regard to cite-of-care decisions and treatment modalities. Within this review, we focus on the potential of metabolic profiling to improve our pathophysiological understanding of disease and management of patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: (1) To show that a single-chain Fv antibody (scFv) against tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) (ESBA105) has efficacy comparable to a full length anti-TNFalpha IgG (infliximab); (2) to evaluate whether ESBA105 has all the properties required for the local treatment of arthritis; and (3) to investigate its discriminative tissue penetration properties.

Methods: In vivo efficacy was measured in arthritis of the knee joint induced by the intra-articular injection of recombinant human TNFalpha (rhTNFalpha) in Lewis rats. Cartilage penetration of scFv (ESBA105) and full length IgG (infliximab) were studied in bovine cartilage specimens ex vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF