Curcuma longa Linnaeus and Zingiber officinale Roscoe are two main representatives of Zingiberaceae family studied for a wide range of therapeutic properties, including: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, antibacterial, analgesic, immunomodulatory, proapoptotic, anti-human immunodeficiency virus properties and anticancer effects. This study was aimed to analyse the ethanolic extracts of Curcuma rhizome (Curcuma longa Linnaeus) and Zingiber rhizome (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) in terms of polyphenols, antioxidant activity and anti-melanoma potential employing the B164A5 murine melanoma cell line. In order to evaluate the total content of polyphenols we used Folin-Ciocâlteu method. The antioxidant activity of the two ethanolic extracts was determined by DPPH assay, and for the control of antiproliferative effect it was used MTT proliferation assay, DAPI staining and Annexin-FITC-7AAD double staining test. Results showed increased polyphenols amount and antioxidant activity for Curcuma rhizome ethanolic extract. Moreover, 100 μg/ml of ethanolic plant extract from both vegetal products presented in a different manner an antiproliferative, respectively a proapoptotic effect on the selected cell line. The study concludes that Curcuma rhizome may be a promising natural source for active compounds against malignant melanoma.

Infectious diseases are associated with a high morbidity and mortality rate among pediatric cancer patients undergoing treatment or receiving a transplant. Neutropenia represents a potentially fatal complication of cancer treatment and is associated with a high risk of developing bacterial infections. Although febrile neutropenia (FN) can affect both adults and children, the latter has a higher chance of infections with an unknown origin. Prompt empiric broad-spectrum antibiotic administration is collectively considered the best therapeutic approach. This review aims to analyze the latest works from the literature regarding the therapeutic strategies, schemes, and approaches and the efficacy of these in pediatric febrile neutropenia. Following PRISMA guidelines, an advanced search on PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library, using the keywords “febrile neutropenia”, “pediatric”, “cancer”, and “oncology”, was performed. A total of 197 articles were found to be eligible. After screening the abstracts and excluding unfit studies, 16 articles were analyzed. There were eight retrospective studies, five prospective studies, and two clinical trials. Altogether, these studies have described around 5000 episodes of FN. The median age of the participants was 7.6 years, and the underlying condition for most of them was acute leukemia. The infectious agent could only be determined in around one-fifth of cases, from which 90% were of bacterial origin. As such, empirical broad-spectrum antibiotics are used, with the most used treatment scheme comprising third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins and antipseudomonal penicillins. In order to improve the treatment strategies of FN episodes and to successfully de-escalate treatments toward narrower-spectrum antibiotics, hospitals and clinics should increase their efforts in identifying the underlying cause of FN episodes through blood culture urine culture and viral tests, wherever infrastructure enables it.

Background and Objectives: The ongoing pandemic proved to be a tremendous challenge to all economic layers, healthcare, and people safety. As more than one year elapsed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a multitude of medical studies involving the SARS-CoV-2 virus helped researchers and medical practitioners in understanding the effects it has on all sorts of patients until effective vaccines were finally developed and distributed for mass vaccination. Still, the SARS-CoV-2 and its new variants remain a potential threat towards all categories of patients, including a more delicate group represented by pregnant women. Thus, the current study aims to investigate the potential effects on obstetrical outcomes after a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection. Materials and Methods: This single-center prospective cohort study investigated the pregnancy outcomes in a total of 1039 eligible pregnant women between 30 August 2020 and 30 January 2021. Multiple patient characteristics and obstetrical outcomes were tested and analyzed in a multivariate regression model to establish potential risks determined by a COVID-19-positive pregnancy towards the mother and the newborn. Results: In the study sample, there were 938 pregnancies included without COVID-19 and 101 pregnant women identified with a positive COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 was significantly associated with a 2-fold increase in the risk of premature rupture of membranes and 1.5 times higher risk of preterm birth with emergency c-sections and lower APGAR scores. Also, significantly more newborns were given birth prematurely, with lower APGAR scores after the mothers were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions: A third-trimester infection with SARS-CoV-2 is a significant risk factor for preterm birth via an emergency cesarean section, a premature rupture of membranes, and a lower APGAR score in newborns, as compared with pregnancies where COVID-19 was not identified.

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing public health emergency. Patients with chronic diseases are at greater risk for complications and poor outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the liver function abnormalities and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 and chronic hepatitis C. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, single-center study was conducted on a cohort of 126 patients with a history of hepatitis C, confirmed with COVID-19 between 01 April 2020 and 30 December 2020. Several clinical outcomes were compared between patients with active and non-active HCV infection, and the risks of liver impairment and all-cause mortality in active HCV patients were analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression model. Results: Among 1057 patients under follow-up for chronic HCV infection, 126 (11.9%) were confirmed with COVID-19; of these, 95 (75.4%) were under treatment or achieved SVR, while in the other 31 (24.6%), we found active HCV replication. There was a significantly higher proportion of severe COVID-19 cases in the active HCV group as compared to the non-active HCV group (32.2 vs. 7.3%, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that age, sex, alanine aminotransferase, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and HCV viral load were significant independent risk factors for liver impairment and all-cause mortality. The length of stay in hospital and intensive care unit for COVID-19 was significantly higher in patients with active HCV infection (p-value < 0.001), and a higher proportion of these patients required mechanical ventilation. Conclusions: Active HCV infection is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality in COVID-19 patients.

The Pap test plays a significant role worldwide in the early diagnosis of and high curability rates for cervical cancer. However, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated the use of multiple drastic measures to stop the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, limiting women’s access to essential invasive and non-invasive investigations for cervical cancer diagnosis. Therefore, we aimed to determine the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on cancer diagnosis and management in western Romania. A retrospective study design allowed us to compare the last 24 months of the pre-pandemic period with the first 24 months of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine the change in volume of cervical screening tests, the number of newly diagnosed cases and their severity, and the access to cancer care. A drastic 75.5% decrease in the volume of tests was observed in April 2020 during the first lockdown, after which the volume of cases decreased by up to 36.1% in December 2021. The total volume loss of tests during the first 24 months of the pandemic was 49.9%. The percentage of late-stage cervical cancers (III–IV) rose by 17%, while the number of newly diagnosed cancers in our outpatient clinic was significantly lower than the baseline, with a 45% drop. The access to cancer care was negatively influenced, with 9.2% more patients waiting longer to receive test results over four weeks, while taking longer to seek cancer care after diagnosis (6.4 months vs. 4.1 months pre-pandemic) and missing significantly more appointments. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly negative impact on cervical cancer diagnosis and management during the first 24 months compared with the same period before the pandemic. Although the numbers are now recovering, there is still a big gap, meaning that many cervical cancer cases were potentially missed. We recommend further interventions to reduce the gap between the pre-pandemic and pandemic period.

The multiplex PCR is a powerful and efficient tool that was widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infections and that has applications for bacterial identification, as well as determining bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the usability of multiplex PCR, especially in patients self-medicated with antibiotics, where bacterial cultures often give false-negative results. A cross-sectional study was developed in two COVID-19 units, where 489 eligible patients were included as antibiotic takers and non-antibiotic takers. Antibiotic takers used mostly over-the-counter medication; they suffered significantly more chronic respiratory conditions and were self-medicated most often with cephalosporins (41.4%), macrolide (23.2%), and penicillin (19.7%). The disease severity in these patients was significantly higher than in non-antibiotic takers, and bacterial superinfections were the most common finding in the same group (63.6%). Antibiotic takers had longer hospital and ICU admissions, although the mortality rate was not significantly higher than in non-antibiotic takers. The most common bacteria involved in secondary infections were Staphylococcus aureus (22.2%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (27.8%), and Klebsiellaspp (25.0%). Patients self-medicating with antibiotics had significantly higher rates of multidrug resistance. The multiplex PCR test was more accurate in identifying multidrug resistance and resulted in a quicker initiation of therapeutic antibiotics compared with instances where a bacterial culture was initially performed, with an average of 26.8 h vs. 40.4 h, respectively. The hospital stay was also significantly shorter by an average of 2.5 days when PCR was used as an initial assessment tool for secondary bacterial infections. When adjusted for age, COVID-19 severity, and pulmonary disease, over-the-counter use of antibiotics represented a significant independent risk factor for a prolonged hospitalization (AOR = 1.21). Similar findings were observed for smoking status (AOR = 1.44), bacterial superinfection (AOR = 1.52), performing only a conventional bacterial culture (AOR = 1.17), and a duration of more than 48 h for bacterial sampling from the time of hospital admission (AOR = 1.36). Multiplex PCR may be a very effective method for diagnosing secondary bacterial infections in COVID-19 individuals self-medicating with antibiotics. Utilizing this strategy as an initial screen in COVID-19 patients who exhibit signs of sepsis and clinical deterioration will result in a faster recovery time and a shorter period of hospitalization.