The Association of Metabolic-Associated Fatty Liver Disease with Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MS). MAFLD patients have a higher prevalence of COVID-19. MAFLD also is associated with worse clinical outcomes of COVID-19, such as disease severity, intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate, and higher mortality rates.

WATS versus forceps biopsy in screening for Barrett's esophagus: experience in community endoscopy centers.

Background: Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a premalignant condition diagnosed using systematic 4-quadrant forceps biopsies (FB) during endoscopy. This method is fraught with errors due to the randomness of sampling and variability among operators. Wide-area transepithelial sampling with 3-dimensional computer-assisted analysis (WATS) is an emerging technique used to collect esophageal samples.

Functional outcome after percutaneous tendo-Achilles lengthening.

Background: Percutaneous tendo-Achilles lengthening (PTAL) is a common procedure performed as an adjunct to other procedures that are used to treat a variety of foot and ankle disorders. Despite the widespread use of PTAL, the only literature to substantiate its efficacy comes from the treatment of forefoot ulceration in diabetics. The complications of the procedure include pain along the Achilles tendon, difficulty using stairs, weakness with toe-off, inadvertent complete tenotomy, and cosmetic appearance.

Bacterial shedding in common spine surgical procedures: headlamp/loupes and the operative microscope.

Study Design: Simulated discectomy was performed using 1) headlamp/loupes, 2) the operative microscope, or 3) neither; and bacterial shedding was assessed using air sampler/settle plate techniques.

Objectives: To determine the potential contribution of these 2 commonly used systems of magnification/illumination to postoperative infection by using a controlled, experimental setting to limit confounding factors.

Summary Of Background Data: Postoperative infections following surgery on the degenerative lumbar spine generally range from 0.

Calcaneal tumors and tumor-like conditions.

Approximately 3% of osseous tumors occur in the foot and ankle. Solitary bone cysts, chondroblastoma, intraosseous lipoma, osteoid osteoma, chondrosarcoma, and Ewing's sarcoma seem to have a predilection for the calcaneus. Biopsy is often a crucial step in management.

Neuroimaging as a guide to predict outcomes for patients with coccidioidal meningitis.

Sixty-two patients with coccidioidal meningitis underwent neuroimaging. Magnetic resonance imaging detected neuroimaging abnormalities in 76% of patients, and computed tomography scanning detected neuroimaging abnormalities in 41.6%.

Hypercalcemia in patients with disseminated coccidioidomycosis.

Objective: Granulomatous disorders may be associated with hypercalcemia. In sarcoidosis, the pathogenesis of hypercalcemia has been clarified, whereas in other granulomatous disorders, such as coccidioidomycosis, the mechanism is unclear. We present 13 patients with coccidioidomycosis and hypercalcemia to illustrate the clinical course and the mechanism of hypercalcemia.

Next-to-next-to-leading order Higgs production at Hadron Colliders.

The Higgs-boson production cross section at pp and pp colliders is calculated in QCD at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We find that the perturbative expansion of the production cross section is well behaved and that scale dependence is reduced relative to the NLO result. These findings give us confidence in the reliability of the prediction.