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Background: In medical diagnosis and clinical practice, diagnosing a disease early is crucial for accurate treatment, lessening the stress on the healthcare system. In medical imaging research, image processing techniques tend to be vital in analyzing and resolving diseases with a high degree of accuracy. This paper establishes a new image classification and segmentation method through simulation techniques, conducted over images of COVID-19 patients in India, introducing the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) in medical practice.Methods: This study establishes a prototype model for classifying COVID-19, comparing it with non-COVID pneumonia signals in Computed tomography (CT) images. The simulation work evaluates the usage of quantum machine learning algorithms, while assessing the efficacy for deep learning models for image classification problems, and thereby establishes performance quality that is required for improved prediction rate when dealing with complex clinical image data exhibiting high biases.Results: The study considers a novel algorithmic implementation leveraging quantum neural network (QNN). The proposed model outperformed the conventional deep learning models for specific classification task. The performance was evident because of the efficiency of quantum simulation and faster convergence property solving for an optimization problem for network training particularly for large-scale biased image classification task. The model run-time observed on quantum optimized hardware was 52 min, while on K80 GPU hardware it was 1 h 30 min for similar sample size. The simulation shows that QNN outperforms DNN, CNN, 2D CNN by more than 2.92% in gain in accuracy measure with an average recall of around 97.7%.Conclusion: The results suggest that quantum neural networks outperform in COVID-19 traits' classification task, comparing to deep learning w.r.t model efficacy and training time. However, a further study needs to be conducted to evaluate implementation scenarios by integrating the model within medical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 infection caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 virus has been linked to a broad spectrum of symptoms, from a mild cough to life-threatening pneumonia. As we learn more about this unusual COVID-19 epidemic, new issues are emerging and being reported daily. Mucormycosis, also known as zygomycosis or phycomycosis, causes severe fungal illness to individuals with a weakened immune system. It is a devastating fungal infection, and the most frequent kind is the rhino cerebral type. As a devastating second wave of COVID-19 sweeps India, doctors report several instances involving a strange illness—sometimes known as the "black fungus"—among returning and recovered COVID-19 patients. This paper analyzes the existing statistical data to address the severity of prevalence and further notes the nano-based diagnostic parameters, clinical presentations, its connection with other conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and GI disorders, and the importance of anti-fungal therapy in treating the same. Anti-fungal therapies, as well as surgical interventions, are currently used for the treatment of the disease. Proper and timely diagnosis is necessary, along with the reduction in the spread of COVID-19. From the review, it was found that timely pharmacologic interventions and early diagnosis by using a nano-based diagnostic kit can help control the disease. Additionally, this paper provides novel information about the nanotechnology approaches such as fungal detection biosensors, nucleic acids-based testing, point-of-care tests, and galactomannans detection, in the diagnosis of mucormycosis, and thereby reinforces the need for further research on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is showing no signs of abatement and result in significant morbidity and mortality in the infected patients. Many therapeutic agents ranging widely between antivirals and anti-inflammatory drugs have been used to mitigate the disease burden. In the deluge of the drugs being used for COVID-19 infection, glucocorticoids (GCs) stand out by reducing mortality amongst in-hospital severe-to-critically ill patients. Health-care practitioners have seen this as a glimmer of hope and started using these drugs more frequently than ever in clinical practice. The fear of mortality in the short term has overridden the concern of adverse long-term consequences with steroid use. The ease of availability, low cost, and apparent clinical improvement in the short term have led to the unscrupulous use of the steroids even in mild COVID-19 patients including self-medication with steroids. The use of GCs has led to the increasing incidence of hyperglycemia and consequent acute complications of diabetic ketoacidosis and mucormycosis in COVID-19 patients. There is an urgent need to dissipate information about optimum management of hyperglycemia during steroid use. In view of this, the Endocrine Society of India has formulated this position statement about the diagnosis and management of hyperglycemia due to the use of GCs in patients with COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]