No abstract

Background: Both experimental and observational studies have provided conflicting evidence on the associations of selenium with incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between selenium status in the body and incidence and mortality of CVD by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials. Methods: A systematic search for articles in MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) and Cochrane library (Wiley) was conducted. Thirteen of the 1811 articles obtained from the databases met our inclusion criteria and were considered in the final analysis. The effect sizes were presented as weighted relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effects model. To detect dose-response relationships, we used meta-regression. Results: Overall, there was a reduced risk of CVD incidence (RR ¼ 0.66; 95% CI: 0.40-1.09) and mortality (RR ¼ 0.69; 95% CI: 0.57-0.84) in physiologically high selenium status compared to low selenium status in the body. There was a 15% (RR ¼ 0.85, 95% CI: 0.76-0.94) decreased risk of CVD incidence per 10 mg increment in blood selenium concentration. In addition, a statistically significantly nonlinear dose-response relationship was found between CVD mortality and increased blood selenium concentration with the lowest risk at the 30-35 mg increment in blood selenium. Conclusions: Physiologically high selenium levels in the body are associated with decreased risk for CVD incidence and mortality, however, people should be cautious about the potential harmful effects from excessive intake of selenium.

Objective: The impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic on the dental community is evident. Dental education programmes and academic activities have suffered from the ramifications of the pandemic. This study aimed to depict the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on the clinical services and academic activities in the department of stomatology of a tertiary hospital in Wuhan, China. Methods: We obtained historical data of the Department of Stomatology from the Health Information System of the General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan, China between January 2018 and June 2020. Mean, standard deviation and median with interquartile range were used to summarize the variables. Line plots were used to illustrate the temporal trend. The Kruskal-Wallis equality-of-populations rank test was used to compare the difference between groups.Results: A significant decrease was noted in the monthly average number of patients seeking outpatient services for the year 2020, which were decreased by two-thirds from 2018 to 2020. The number of emergency cases also decreased significantly by 57.6% in 2020. The monthly number of teaching hours decreased from 3.8 ± 1.5 in 2018 and 4.7 ± 1.4 in 2019 to 1.7 ± 1.9 in 2020. The number of interns also decreased by more than 77.0% in 2020. Conclusions:The impacts of COVID-19 in the stomatology clinic were significant with notable decreases in clinical services and education offered to the stomatology students. There is a need to find solutions to keep as many dental professionals as needed remaining on the frontline of oral health care.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to depict the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical services and academic activities in the department of stomatology of a tertiary hospitals in Wuhan, China. Methods: We obtained historical data of the Department of Stomatology from the Health Information System of the General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan, China between January 2018 and June 2020. Line plots were used to illustrate temporal trend of the variables. Mean ± standard deviation and median with interquartile range were used to summarize the variables. The Kruskal-Wallis equality-of-populations rank test was used to compare the difference between groups. Results: A significant decrease was noted in the monthly average number of patients seeking the outpatient services for the year 2020. The monthly numbers of patients seeking outpatient services were decreased by two thirds from 2018 to 2020. The number of emergency cases also decreased significantly by 64% in 2020. The monthly number of teaching hours decreased from 3.8 ± 1.5 in 2018 and 4.7 ± 1.4 in 2019 to 1.7 ± 1.9 in 2020. The number of interns also decreased more than 70% in 2020. Conclusions: The impacts of COVID 19 in the stomatology clinic were significant with notable decreases in clinical services and education offered to the stomatology students. We must find solutions to keep as many as needed dental profession stay on thriving and to remain on the frontline of healthcare.