The Protective Role of Anti-Hypertension Medication Among Patients with Comorbidities for COVID-19 Outcomes

Millions of people around the world take Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) to manage hypertension, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. Concerns of ACEi and ARB potentially increasing the risk of COVID-19 illness severity and mortality among vulnerable populations heightened once scientists reported that risk factors for developing complications included … Read more

Insights About COVID-19 Health Outcomes in Smokers from Hospital Records

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians noticed that some patients with pre-existing medical conditions were at higher risk of severe illness and death. Since then, many observational studies confirmed that people with diabetes, asthma, or cardiovascular disease had a substantially higher risk of COVID-19-related complications and death1,2. Such studies typically use hospital patient records to … Read more

Ramadan, COVID-19 and the cardiac patient

With the dawn of the Islamic lunar month of Ramadan, many Muslims around the world begin observing an absolute fast from dawn to dusk, abstaining from food, drink, and oral medications. The fast naturally also entails a change in lifestyle, sleeping patterns, and adjustments of salt and fluid intake, all of which have implications for … Read more

On the Basis of Sex: Are males more vulnerable in severity and mortality from COVID-19?

As we just passed our first anniversary of fighting COVID-19, we are in a better position than we used to be a year ago. Nationwide vaccine efforts encourage us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, the virus is still lurking around and always finds its way back in many unpredictable … Read more

CDC Guidelines for the Vaccinated Population

It has been more than a year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. In the past year, more than 130 million people were diagnosed with COVID-19, and we have lost 3 million lives globally. Within a record time, several effective vaccines were developed. Given that the vaccinated population is rapidly increasing, … Read more

Effects of COVID-19 on Acute Ischaemic Stroke care: Comparative insights from Get With The Guidelines-Stroke registry

Much like acute myocardial infarctions, the optimal management of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) is extremely time-sensitive. The foundation of favorable outcomes of AIS lies in the timely presentation and acute intervention by means of either intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy. Especially earlier on during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern regarding a decline in … Read more

Hindsight 2020: Lessons From a Calendar Year of COVID

This month signifies a full calendar year since the covid-19 pandemic has been declared a crisis and activated a worldwide response. To be exact, the WHO declared covid-19 a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. Of course, the signs were there beforehand. Starting in December 2019, there were officials in China focusing their attention on the … Read more

Building an academic portfolio during medical training: Part 3 – The art of reaching out

A year ago, I started a blog series about how to build an academic portfolio during medical training. After the first 2 blogs, COVID-19 hit us hard, and I felt the need to switch gears to address more pressing issues. Now that things are starting to finally move in the right direction, I thought it … Read more

Interview with Dr. Shlee S. Song, Director, Comprehensive Stroke Center at Cedars-Sinai

Almost one year since COVID19 was deemed a pandemic, we are nowhere close to get it under control. Although it has affected the healthcare system in innumerable ways, stroke management has been particularly impacted. Not only by the disease itself, but also by the multidisciplinary and strictly protocols for its diagnosis and treatment that have … Read more