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Renal artery stenosis is responsible for approximately 75% of secondary hypertensive cases. A 63-year-old female patient with uncontrolled hypertension and other comorbidities including type 2 diabetes mellitus and knee osteoarthritis presented with drastically raised systolic blood pressure in this case report (220 mmHg). Bilateral abdominal bruits were detected upon of physical examination. Imaging investigation showed significant bilateral atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis. An optimal combination of antihypertensive agents mainly with an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, other than interventional revascularization, was applied and resulted in controlled blood pressure.

Background: COVID-19 is a rising health problem that affects not only the infected patients but also the non-COVID-19 group. There is a reduction of non-COVID-19 healthcare services during COVID-19 outbreaks which leads to subsequent increment of mortality. This study aims to investigate the impact of the fourth COVID-19 surge on the cardiology outpatient visits at Nhan dan Gia Dinh hospital. Method: A retrospective observational study was conducted using extracted data from the healthcare informative system of Nhan dan Gia Dinh hospital. Monthly trends of cardiology outpatient visits between May 1st, 2021 to August 31st, 2021 were compared with those of the previous four months and the same period of the year 2020. The demographic characteristics, diagnoses, and prescription behavior were described. Results: Non-COVID-19 cardiology outpatient visits showed a stable trend until the beginning of the fourth outbreak, in May 2021 when they dropped drastically by 50%. A reduction of 50% was observed in every diagnosis. There was a substantial decrease in visits from other provinces as well as in the concurrent diagnosis of cancer. No change in the rates of prescribed medications was observed besides the lengthening of the prescription time. Conclusion: The fourth COVID-19 wave caused a serious impact on cardiology outpatient care which might lead to an adverse prognosis. Though there has been some adaptive modification in prescription, this phenomenon calls for more attention and adequate measurements in the non-COVID-19 population for the later outbreaks.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. In Vietnam, the incidence rate started climbing in May 2021, reaching an all-time high of 9,000 cases per day, and is projected to increase even further. Direct patient contact, as has always been the case in conventional medical practice, now constitutes significant transmission risk during the height of COVID-19. Healthcare workers, while accounting for a minor proportion of the population, are two to three times more likely to contract COVID-19, especially those who provide outpatient care or home-based service. The pandemic has led to a significant increase in the adoption of telemedicine, as hospitals are overwhelmed with critically ill patients, demand for healthcare soars, and transmission risk remains serious. With appropriate attention and further advancement of Vietnam's telehealth infrastructure, telemedicine will become an indispensable weapon to combat COVID-19 and an important modality of medical care during and after the pandemic.

The study integrated the stimuli–organism-response (SOR) framework and the social exchange theory to explain the mechanism of consumer entitlement (CE) behavior in the retail context of Confucian culture. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined in this study in the form of two focus groups and a survey questionnaire (n = 465) administered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, under the supervision of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office. The results revealed that government regulation, store fairness and preferential treatment belong to stimuli dimensions that trigger CE behavior through organisms, such as trust, commitment and perceived quality. The study’s findings give empirical support to retailers to understand and look for the right strategy for controlling CE behavior in a Confucian-culture context.

Background Patients having type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk of cardiovascular events. Triglyceride-rich lipoprotein levels are synergistically increased in patients with DM and CKD. This study examined the predictive value of remnant lipoprotein levels for cardiovascular events in patients with DM and CKD. Methods Three hundred and sixty-five patients with type 2 DM and CKD were enrolled. Serum levels of remnant lipoproteins (remnant-like lipoprotein particles cholesterol; RLP-C) were measured by an immunoseparation method. All patients were followed prospectively for a period of 45 ± 23 months or until occurrence of one of the following events: cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring unplanned coronary revascularization, or ischemic stroke. Results During the follow-up period, 59 patients had cardiovascular events. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that high levels of RLP-C (≥4.3 mg/dL; median value) were a significant risk factor for cardiovascular events, independent of traditional risk factors (HR: 1.30; 95% CI: 1.04–1.63; p = 0.02). The addition of high levels of RLP-C to traditional risk factors improved net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) (NRI 0.36, p = 0.01; and IDI 0.03, p = 0.02). Conclusions RLP-C is useful for risk assessment of future cardiovascular events in patients having type 2 DM and CKD.

Background:After acute coronary syndrome (ACS), there is a high risk of recurrent cardiovascular events. Triglyceride-rich lipoproteins influence residual cardiovascular risk in patients taking statin. This study examined the predictive value of remnant lipoprotein level for secondary cardiovascular events in patients treated with statins after ACS.Methods and Results:A total of 190 patients treated with statins after ACS were enrolled in the study. The serum level of remnant lipoproteins (remnant-like lipoprotein particle cholesterol; RLP-C) was measured using an immunoseparation method. All the patients were followed prospectively for a maximum period of 70 months or until the occurrence of one of the following events: cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring unplanned coronary revascularization, or ischemic stroke. During the follow-up period, 42 patients had a secondary event. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that a high level of RLP-C (≥5.4 mg/dl; determined on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis) was a significant risk factor for secondary events, independent of conventional risk factors (hazard ratio, 2.94; 95% confidence interval: 1.40–6.18; P