Said Ramadan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Said Ramadan

Journal of Chemotherapy

Dalbavancin is a novel lipoglycopeptide antibiotic, characterized by a broad spectrum of activity... more Dalbavancin is a novel lipoglycopeptide antibiotic, characterized by a broad spectrum of activity against Gram-positive cocci. However, its efficacy in spondylodiscitis treatment is not fully established. All adult patients diagnosed with spondylodiscitis and treated with dalbavancin were included across four Italian medical centers from January 2018 to April 2021. We collected clinical and laboratory data, and presented follow-up findings along with a thorough literature review. 13 patients (mean age= 65 years) were included in this study. Dalbavancin was administered as first line treatment in six (46%) of the patients. Reasons for using Dalbavancin included treatment simplification (62%) and clinical failure of previous antibiotics (23%). In general, Dalbavancin was well tolerated with minimal adverse events, and clinical success was achieved in 11/13 (85%) of the patients during hospitalization with additional antibiotics required in the remaining two cases. Five months after discharge, no mortality was observed, however, 42% of patients required additional antibiotics for signs of infection on follow-up imaging. Our study suggests that Dalbavancin could be an effective and safe option in treating spondylodiscitis, however, the scarcity of studies on the topic is concerning. Thus, further studies with large samples and long-term follow-up are warranted to compare the efficacy of Dalbavancin with other available treatment options.

Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine

Novel cardiac devices, including the MitraClip system, occluder devices, leadless pacemakers, and... more Novel cardiac devices, including the MitraClip system, occluder devices, leadless pacemakers, and subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillators (S-ICD), are mostly used in the management of patients who are at high risk for surgery and/or developing infections. Several mechanisms render most of these devices resistant to infection, including avoiding long transvenous access and novel manufacturing material. Since subjects who use these devices already endure several comorbid conditions, uncommon cases of device-associated infection could result in serious complications and increased mortality. In this review, we aim to summarize the current state of evidence on the incidence, clinical presentation, management, and prognosis of new cardiac devices' associated infection.

Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2021

The liver-heart axis is a growing field of interest owing to rising evidence of complex bidirecti... more The liver-heart axis is a growing field of interest owing to rising evidence of complex bidirectional interplay between the two organs. Recent data suggest non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has a significant, independent association with a wide spectrum of structural and functional cardiac diseases, and seems to worsen cardiovascular disease (CVD) prognosis. Conversely, the effect of cardiac disease on NAFLD is not well studied and data are mostly limited to cardiogenic liver disease. We believe it is important to further investigate the heart-liver relationship because of the tremendous global health and economic burden the two diseases pose, and the impact of such investigations on clinical decision making and management guidelines for both diseases. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on NAFLD diagnosis, its systemic manifestations, and associations with CVD. More specifically, we review the pathophysiological mechanisms that govern the interplay between NA...

Clinical Infection and Immunity, 2021

Internal and Emergency Medicine, 2021

Growing reports since the beginning of the pandemic and till date describe increased rates of car... more Growing reports since the beginning of the pandemic and till date describe increased rates of cardiac complications (CC) in the active phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). CC commonly observed include myocarditis/myocardial injury, arrhythmias and heart failure, with an incidence reaching about a quarter of hospitalized patients in some reports. The increased incidence of CC raise questions about the possible heightened susceptibility of patients with cardiac disease to develop severe COVID-19, and whether the virus itself is involved in the pathogenesis of CC. The wide array of CC seems to stem from multiple mechanisms, including the ability of the virus to directly enter cardiomyocytes, and to indirectly damage the heart through systemic hyperinflammatory and hypercoagulable states, endothelial injury of the coronary arteries and hypoxemia. The induced CC seem to dramatically impact the prognosis of COVID-19, with some studies suggesting over 50% mortality rates with myoc...

Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2021

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been implicated in a wide spectrum of cardiac ... more Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been implicated in a wide spectrum of cardiac manifestations following the acute phase of the disease. Objectives To assess the range of cardiac sequelae after COVID-19 recovery. Data sources PubMed, Embase, Scopus (inception through 17 February 2021), and Google scholar (2019 through 17 February 2021). Study eligibility criteria Prospective and retrospective studies, case reports and case series. Participants Adult patients assessed for cardiac manifestations after COVID-19 recovery. Exposure Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Methods Systematic review. Results Thirty-five studies (fifteen prospective cohort, seven case reports, five cross-sectional, four case series, three retrospective cohort and one ambidirectional cohort) evaluating cardiac sequelae in 52609 patients were included. Twenty-nine studies utilized objective cardiac assessments, mostly cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in sixteen studies, echocardiography in fifteen, electrocardiography (ECG) in sixteen and cardiac biomarkers in eighteen. Most studies had a fair risk of bias. The median time from diagnosis/recovery to cardiac assessment was 48 days (1-180). Common short-term cardiac abnormalities (<3 months) included increased T1 (proportion: 30%), T2 (16%), pericardial effusion (15%) and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE, 11%) on CMR, with symptoms such as chest pain (25%) and dyspnea (36%). In the medium term (3-6 months), common changes included reduced left ventricular global longitudinal strain (30%) and LGE (10%) on CMR, diastolic dysfunction (40%) on echocardiography and elevated NT-proBNP (18%). In addition, COVID-19 survivors had higher risk (RR = 3; 95% CI: 2.7-3.2) of developing heart failure, arrythmias and myocardial infarction. Conclusions COVID-19 appears to be associated with persistent/de novo cardiac injury after recovery, particularly subclinical myocardial injury in the earlier phase and diastolic dysfunction later. Larger well-designed and controlled studies with baseline assessments are needed to better measure the extent of cardiac injury and its clinical impact.

Industrial and Commercial Training, 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study and provide a large national publicly traded company... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study and provide a large national publicly traded company with realistic solutions for succession planning. The name of the actual company where all data were collected has remained anonymous and been replaced with Millennium Dynamics, Inc. As a large number of their workforce consists of “Baby Boomers”, 50 percent of their employees will be of retirement age within the next five years. Having acknowledged the company's concerns about efficiency of new employees and the loss of morale in senior employees, this two‐part article sets out to provide motivational tools for management and suggest solutions to restructure and reorganize in a way to prevent the inevitable – loss of corporate knowledge via succession planning.Design/methodology/approachA survey and individual interviews were conducted within the company to measure current job satisfaction and company culture as well as how the different generations of employees view each other and...

Industrial and Commercial Training, 2014

Purpose – Global corporate strategies are revealing the boundaries of organizational capabilities... more Purpose – Global corporate strategies are revealing the boundaries of organizational capabilities and the limits of the natural resource capacity that is needed to sustain business operations. Sustainability has emerged as a strategic response adopted by many corporations to reduce resource dependency and consumption costs in an effort to secure existence as a going concern while also demonstrating corporate citizenship. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This two-part paper will present a review of recent findings relevant to sustainability and change management was performed in order to develop a better understanding of factors that may hinder corporate adoption of sustainability, the role of sustainability in transformational change, and the change management challenges involved in integrating sustainability within corporate culture. Findings – For a growing number of organizations, sustainability has recently been elevated from “doing” to the l...

The Hemic group includes the Egyptian and Coptic languages, the Libyan and Barbarian languages, t... more The Hemic group includes the Egyptian and Coptic languages, the Libyan and Barbarian languages, the Koshtia languages, and the languages of the original inhabitants of the eastern part of Africa. [excerpt]