Prognostic nutritional index as indicator of immune nutritional status of patients with COVID-19

Nomogram for predicting overall survival after curative gastrectomy using inflammatory, nutritional and pathological factors

PURPOSE

To establish a nomogram for predicting the overall survival (OS) in patients with gastric cancer (GC) based on inflammatory, nutritional and pathological factors.

METHODS

GC patients underwent curative gastrectomy from January 2012 to June 2017 in our hospital were included, and were classified into training set and validation set with a ratio of 7:3. Then variables associated with OS were analyzed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Nomograms predicting OS were built using variables from multivariable Cox models. Finally, Kaplan-Meier curve and Log-rank test were also conducted to analyze the 1-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr OS to validate the efficiency of risk stratification of the nomogram.

RESULTS

A total of 366 GC patients were included. After univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, age (HR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.01-2.30, P = 0.044), CA50 (HR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.12-3.21, P = 0.017), PNI (HR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.13-2.39, P = 0.009), SII (HR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.03-2.08, P = 0.036), T stage (HR = 2.26, 95% CI = 1.01-5.05, P = 0.048; HR = 7.24, 95% CI = 3.64-14.40, P < 0.001) were independent influencing factors on the survival time of GC patients. Five factors including CEA, prognostic nutritional index (PNI), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), ln (tumor size), T stage, and N stage were identified and entered the nomogram, which showed good discrimination and calibration in both sets. On internal validation, 1-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr nomogram demonstrated a good discrimination with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.77, 0.84 and 0.86, respectively. The AUC for 1-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr nomogram in validation set was 0.77, 0.79 and 0.81, respectively. The OS in low risk group of training cohort and validation cohort was significantly higher than that of intermediate risk group and high risk group, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

We established a nomogram based on PNI, SII and pathological factors for predicting OS in GC patients. In addition, its efficiency was validated by validation set and stratified analysis.

Prognostic Nutritional Index as a Predictive Biomarker of Post-Operative Infectious Morbidity in Gynecological Cancer Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study

Malnutrition significantly impacts the post-operative process of gynecological cancer patients. A prominent variable for determining perioperative morbidity is the Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI). To investigate PNI's predictive value on the risk of post-operative infections, we conducted a prospective cohort study involving women who underwent surgery for gynecological malignancies. Out of the 208 patients enrolled, 28 (13.5%) were malnourished and post-operative infections occurred in 43 patients. Notably, there was a significant difference in PNI between patients who developed infections and those who did not (p = 0.027), as well as between malnourished patients and those with normal nutritional status (p = 0.043). Univariate analysis showed that preoperative PNI predicts the risk of post-operative infections better than post-operative white blood cell count (AUC of 0.562 vs 0.375). However, the most accurate diagnostic results in the multivariate analysis were obtained from random forest and classification tree models (AUC of 0.987 and 0.977, respectively). Essentially, PNI and post-operative white blood cell count provided the best information gain according to rank probabilities. In conclusion, PNI appears to be a critical parameter that merits further investigation during the preoperative evaluation of gynecological malignancies.

The influence of vitamin and mineral consumption on the course of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

OBJECTIVE

Aim: The study of the role of micronutrients in the prevention of the severe course of the coronavirus disease.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Materials and Methods: In order to fulfill the task, there was conducted an analytical review of medical and biological publications in English in the electronic databases PubMed Medline of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for the period from 2015 to November 2023, where included 50 published articles, 28 preprints and 109 trials. In the course of the study, the bibliographic-semantic research method was used according to the "Preferred Reporting Elements for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses" (PRISMA) protocol. According to this protocol, identified literary sources were sequentially analyzed by title, keywords, abstract and full text of articles. Based on the results of 16 searches, 2650 articles from PubMed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Embase, 3162 articles from preprint servers and 237 trials were rejected. In the final article synthesis, we included 50 published articles, 28 preprints, and 109 trials.

CONCLUSION

Conclusions: The most effective in preventing complications of the coronavirus disease are vitamins A, D, E, K, C, B3, B6, B9, B12 and such mineral substances as Mg, Se and Zn. The consumption of appropriate bioactive complexes and source products can be considered a clinically and economically effective strategy for the prevention of a severe course of the coronavirus disease.

Assessment of Spanish Food Consumption Patterns during COVID-19 Home Confinement

People's eating habits and lifestyle can have a negative impact on health. In situations of difficulty or socioeconomic crisis, these habits tend to be modified, leading to unhealthy dietary patterns that result in an increase of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Previous studies have indicated that, due to the state of alarm imposed in Spain to combat the spread of COVID-19, an increase in the purchase of non-core products occurred, along with a decrease in the daily physical activity of the population. This could be a risk factor for COVID-19 infection. The objective of this observational study was to analyze the dietary pattern of the Spanish population during home confinement and to compare it with the pattern of habitual consumption collected in the last National Health Survey, analyzing the possible changes. More than half of the respondents in the sample increased their consumption of sweets and snacks during confinement, while the consumption of fresh products decreased. Most claimed to be emotionally hungry, leading to an increase in their daily energy intake. The stress and anxiety generated by confinement could be the cause of the increased consumption of products rich in sugars and saturated fats, which are associated with greater stress and anxiety.