Adrenal suppression is an inevitable consequence of ALL therapy. Monitoring of cortisol levels and steroid coverage during stress is recommended, and gradual steroid tapering is suggested.

SUMMARYBackground: Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive cancer with a low survival time. So far, there have been no studies assessing direct and indirect costs in individual patients. Aim: To assess prospectively the cost of illness in patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods: Patients were consecutively included at first admission to hospital. Sociodemographic factors, medical resource use and employment status were assessed by patient interviews and from medical records in a standardized way. Costs were calculated from the perspectives of the hospital, social insurance and society. Linear regression analyses were used to determine factors associated with costs.

Background: To date, the cytokine profile in children and adolescent with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has not been reported. Objectives:We investigated serum levels of a panel of key cytokines in children and adolescent with COVID-19 pneumonia with a primary focus on "cytokine storm" cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-17, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, interferon (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and two chemokines interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) and IL-8. We also studied whether these cytokines could be potential markers for illness severity in COVID-19 pneumonia.Methods: Ninety-two symptomatic patients aged less than 18 years with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and 100 well-matched healthy controls were included in this multi-center study. For all patients, the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in respiratory fluid specimens was detected by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We measured serum concentrations of studied cytokines by using flow cytometry.

This paper presents a numerical study of quantization effects in gate-all-around nanowire transistors with circular cross section. The model is based on the self consistent solution of Schrödinger and Poisson equations. The eigenenergies and wavefunctions were first verified analytically whenever possible. Electron distribution profiles, body and surface potentials and capacitance characteristics are presented for specific examples.

Background Given the sparse data on vitamin D status in pediatric COVID-19, we investigated whether vitamin D deficiency could be a risk factor for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents. We also investigated whether vitamin D receptor (VDR) FokI polymorphism could be a genetic marker for COVID-19 susceptibility. Methods One hundred and eighty patients diagnosed to have COVID‐19 and 200 matched control children and adolescents were recruited. Patients were laboratory confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 positive by real-time RT-PCR. All participants were genotyped for VDR Fok1 polymorphism by RT-PCR. Vitamin D status was defined as sufficient for serum 25(OH) D at least 30 ng/mL, insufficient at 21–29 ng/mL, deficient at <20 ng/mL. Results Ninety-four patients (52%) had low vitamin D levels with 74 (41%) being deficient and 20 (11%) had vitamin D insufficiency. Vitamin D deficiency was associated with 2.6-fold increased risk for COVID-19 (OR = 2.6; [95% CI 1.96–4.9]; P = 0.002. The FokI FF genotype was significantly more represented in patients compared to control group (OR = 4.05; [95% CI: 1.95–8.55]; P < 0.001). Conclusions Vitamin D deficiency and VDR Fok I polymorphism may constitute independent risk factors for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents. Impact Vitamin D deficiency could be a modifiable risk factor for COVID-19 in children and adolescents because of its immune-modulatory action. To our knowledge, ours is the first such study to investigate the VDR Fok I polymorphism in Caucasian children and adolescents with COVID-19. Vitamin D deficiency and the VDR Fok I polymorphism may constitute independent risk factors for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents. Clinical trials should be urgently conducted to test for causality and to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation for prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19 taking into account the VDR polymorphisms.