Journal of Advances in Medical and Biomedical Research
Volume:30 Issue: 140, May-Jun 2022

 Hearing loss as a sensory disorder is among the most common developmental disorders. Based on the universal neonatal screening results, the incidence of hearing deficit is 1–3 per 1000 live births in the well-baby nursery population and 2–4 in 100 newborns in the intensive care community. The aim of this study was to highlight the main risk factors for hearing loss based on the existing evidence.

 We searched all observational studies related to risk factors of hearing loss from 1990 to 2019 in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science direct, and google scholar search engines. Quality of the included studies was evaluated by the STROBE checklist. Totally, 17 observational studies met our inclusion criteria.

 In most of the reviewed studies, the relations between hearing loss in infants and some maternal and neonatal variables such as ventilatory support, craniofacial anomalies, hyperbilirubinemia, meningitis, Apgar scores, sepsis, asphyxia, stay in intensive care units, respiratory distress syndrome, and pulmonary surfactant were statistically significant.

 Our results indicated that ventilator support, craniofacial anomalies, low birth weight, and hyperbilirubinemia were the main statistically significant risk factors for hearing-loss.

A number of studies have previously provided evidence on the Anti-inflammatory properties of plant-derived compounds that can prevent lung injury. In this study, we attempted to analyze the therapeutic effects of PM 014 on inflammation and pulmonary fibrosis in COVID-19 as well as describing the treatment of one of the most challenging problems related to the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19). We believe that having a close look at all angles of the proposed mechanism goes beyond the physiological consequences of a way to design new strategies for providing an appropriate treatment.

 Measurement of inflammatory markers and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) may contribute to the evaluation of lung involvement severity. This study aimed to evaluate relationship between severity of primary lung involvement with highest level of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and LDH in patients with COVID-19.

 This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 123 patients with COVID-19 in Shahid Sadoughi Hospital. Data including age, gender, ESR (mm/h), LDH (U/L), and high-resolution Computed Tomography scan (HRCT) findings and hospitalization ward were extracted from medical records. The regression model was used to determine the relation between HRCT findings with LDH and ESR.

 Mean LDH, ESR, and HRCT findings were 508.41±224.65, 52.23±29.56, and 37.17± 22.18 respectively. A significant relation was seen between HRCT findings with highest level of LDH and ESR (P=0.001). A significant relation was observed between the highest levels of ESR and HRCT findings, regarding age, gender, and hospitalization wards (P<0.01). There was a significant relation between the highest level of LDH and HRCT findings regarding age group and hospitalization wards (P<0.01).

 A significant relation was seen between HRCT findings and highest levels of ESR and LDH in patients with COVID-19. Therefore, it seems that assessment of laboratory findings such as LDH and ESR can be helpful as cost-effective markers instead of chest CT scan for predicting the severity of lung injury when the CT scan report is controversial. The relation between HRCT findings with LDH and ESR were affected by age and hospitalization ward. However, more studies should be conducted in this regard.

 Hospital readmissions are common and expensive. Identifying the patients who are at high risk of readmission can decrease readmission. Hence, in the present study, the clinical characteristics, biomarker results, and Computed Tomography (CT) criteria of all the readmitted patients were assessed.

 Data of 98 readmitted patients to the Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran reviewed from December 22, 2019 through June 20, 2020. We classified the readmitted patients into three groups: patients (1) without COVID-19 symptoms, (2) with suspected COVID-19, and (3) with confirmed COVID-19 infection.

 Our data revealed that the frequency of gender was significantly different between groups (with higher frequency for men). The duration between two admissions were significantly low in the confirmed COVID-19 group. Ischemic heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were more common in confirmed COVID-19 group. High levels of CRP, and ESR detected in the confirmed COVID-19 group. During the first admission, the count of WBC was significantly lower in the confirmed COVID-19 group, the RBC count and hemoglobin level was significantly higher in both the first and second admission in the confirmed COVID-19 group. Most of the patient’s had bilateral lung lesions and ground glass opacities (GGO) in their CT Scans in the second admission.

 Our data suggested that the older men and ischemic heart disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus had a high risk of hospital readmission in COVID-19. The confirmed COVID-19 group showed a shorten time to be readmitted.

 Currently, no therapeutic or surgical treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been officially approved. This is a serious void in the medical field given the increasing prevalence of NAFLD cases in developing countries. Our study compared the therapeutic effect of metformin, melatonin and vitamin E on serum parameters that are associated with NAFLD pathogenesis.

 This randomized clinical trial was performed on 140 patients with NAFLD who were referred to the central hospital of Qazvin. Patients were assigned randomly into four groups. The first group received metformin (500mg daily) with two placebos, the second group received melatonin (10mg daily) with two placebos, the third group received daily 800 IU vitamin E with two placebos and the fourth group received three placebos daily. All four groups were placed on the same diet regimen and had the same lifestyle changes to increase their daily activity time. Ultrasonography was used for the evaluation of the appearance of liver. Weight, BMI, AST, ALT, lipid profile and FBS were measured at baseline, 3 months and 6 months later.

 All of the therapeutic agents caused a decrease in aminotransferases but metformin was also more potent in improving lipid profiles. A significant difference in LDL was obtained by melatonin (mean change in the control vs. melatonin 15.9; P=0.032) and AST (mean change in control vs. melatonin -18.3; P<0.001). Metformin improved liver appearance in ultrasonography imaging better than the other treatments (P=0.043).

 Metformin can be considered an effective medication but melatonin may accelerate the healing process in NAFLD patients.

 COVID-19 was first seen in Wuhan-China in December 2019, and became a widely- spreadepidemic and caused a terrifying life-threatening problem in most societies of the world. In Iran, a declaration was made on  January 20, 2020, and all health systems were alerted of the disease threats.

 We collected all chest CT scans of 200 cases diagnosed as COVID-19 who died in 22 hospitals of Golestan Province, Iran. All data were collected in a designed checklist, then statistical evaluation  was made using descriptive analysis and Chi-Square test.

 The most frequent complaints in patients were dyspnea (38.5%), fever(15%), and dry cough (13%) . Hypertension (22.5%), Heart disease (18.5%), and diabetes (15%) were present as underlying diseases. CT scan findings showed Ground Glass Opacity (96%), consolidation (44%), pleural effusion (26.5%), crazy paving (15%), and cardiomegaly (15.5%).

 Based on this study, hypertension as an underlying disease was significantly related to Highly Suggestive CT scans. No relation was found between cardiomegaly and death under 48 hours. Our findings Showed Ground Glass Opacity (GGO) in 192 (96%), consolidation  in 88 (44%), crazy paving in 30 (15%), cardiomegaly in 30 (15%), and pleural effusion in 53 (26.5%) cases.

 Chronic kidney disease (CKD)  determined by permanent kidney damage. Due to the similarity of clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism with CKD, hypothyroidism may be neglected and remain untreated. The goal of our study was to evaluate the rate of hypothyroidism in CKD patients who need hemodialysis.

 This is a cross-sectional research. The sampling method was census and included all CKD patients in need of hemodialysis, who had undergone hemodialysis for at least three months. Serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) hormones were measured in these patients, then the collected data were statistically analyzed.

 We studied 108 patients, 58 males (53.7%) and 50 females (46.3%). The mean age of the patients was 61.09 ± 13.45 years. The mean serum levels of hormones were as follows: TSH:1.64±1.78 µIL/ml,  T3:0.88 ± 0.2ng/dl, and  T4:7.7±1.6 µg/dl.
In this study, 7.4% of the patients had high TSH levels, 3.7% of the patients had decreased T4 levels and 10.2% of the patients had lower than normal T3 levels.

 The rate of hypothyroidism in CKD patients who needed hemodialysis was higher than the normal population. It is recommended that serum TSH, and T4 levels in CKD patients be measured regularly to detect subclinical hypothyroid cases.

 Growth is an important marker of child health. It has been shown recently that a chronic inflammatory condition, known as Environmental Enteric Dysfunction might play a more significant role on growth velocity than clinical infections. The present study aims to investigate the fecal myeloperoxidase concentration (a marker of gut inflammation) and its relationship with growth velocity.

 In this prospective cohort study, 74 children from rural population of Iran (2 to 5 years of age) were randomly included. The heights and weights of the children were measured at a quarterly interval. The stool samples were obtained from all children in order to measure myeloperoxidase (MPO) concentration. The growth velocity was assessed on the basis of height for age Z-score and weight for age Z-score changes. A questionnaire on socioeconomic status was also completed by children’s parents.

 82 children aged 2 to 5 years (37 females and 45 males) with mean age of 40.63 ± 12.7 months participated in this study. The mean fecal MPO level was 71.26 ng/ml (Min – Max: 2 – 232.33 ng/ml). There was no significant relationship between fecal myeloperoxidase level and changes in height and weight Z scores. Moreover, there was no significant relationship between socioeconomic status of households and fecal myeloperoxidase level.

 The mean level of fecal MPO in the present study was lower than similar studies. This significant difference might be mainly due to the better social status of families and environmental conditions of villages in our study.

 Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease defined by chronic synovitis and progressive joint destruction. This study investigated calprotectin as a serological marker in the hope of establishing an adequate means of diagnosing RA and following up on patients.

 This cross-sectional study included 32 RA patients who were referred to the rheumatology clinic of Baqiyatallah Hospital (Tehran, Iran) from 2019 to 2020. clinical examinations and requested laboratory tests was performed. The final visit was placed after a year with the same method as the initial visit. Disease activity was assessed by Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS-28) for 28 joints which is assessable by ESR or CRP and data were analyzed by SPSS 20 version.

 Changes over time were significant in both (P=0.00 and P=0.00), and a significant relationship was found between the quantitative scores of the two forms of DAS-28 (P<0.000). Calprotectin did not show any significant correlation with either form of the DAS-28 quantitatively. Ahead of logistic regression analysis on the after one-year C-reactive protein based DAS-28 data, patients with cured disease or low disease activity were combined into one group. Accordingly, calprotectin was able to predict RA activity level to some extent (P=0.06), though a more efficient prediction was achieved when erythrocyte sedimentation rate and calprotectin were applied together (P=0.03).

 ESR and calprotectin did not show good power in predicting disease activity individually but they could have significantly high prediction potency combined.

 COVID-19 is a serious disease with different symptoms and risk factors infecting and killing many people around the world. This study was performed to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 suspects referred to the hospitals and coronavirus treatment centers of Shahroud, Iran.

 Upon the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Shahroud, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences launched a project to systematically record the demographic, clinical, and medical data of all suspects referred to the Corona Center. In this study, the data of 3945 suspected people collected during 5 months were analyzed. The RT-PCR test was used as the criterion for diagnosing the disease.

 Among 3945 suspected cases, 24.4% had positive RT-PCR test. The mean age of confirmed cases was 52.16 years. Dry cough and fever in addition to anorexia were reported as the most common symptoms. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that people over 60 years with heart disease reduce the risk, while people over 60 years, diabetics, and obese people increase the risk of infection.

 These results necessitate further lines of research into different symptoms and risk factors to help identify COVID-19 cases earlier and start faster treatment.

 Monoarthritis is the inflammation of a single joint. There is limited data on the etiology of monorthritis in Iran. This study was aimed to evaluate epidemiologic charecteristics of the patients with monorthritis in Kashan, Iran.

 This cross-sectional study was conducted on 227 patients with monorthritis referred to the rheumatology clinic of Kashan, Iran between 2018 and 2019. General, physical and rheumatological examinations were performed on all patients. synovial fluid samples were analyzed for viscosity, leucocyte count, Gram's staining, culture and microscopic evaluation of crystals.

 Mean age of the patients at the baseline was 56.1±17.2 years, out of whom 44.1% were male. Acute and chronic monoarthritis cases were 51.5% and 48.5%, respectively. The most common involved joint was the knee (60.7%) followed by  the ankle (32.2%). Pseudogout (39.3%,) and gout (31.6%) were the most common causes of acute monoarthritis. There was no significant difference in etiology of acute monoarthritis between male and female (P value=0.33). Osteoarthritis (53.50%) and rheumatoid arthritis (25.50%) were the most common causes of chronic arthritis. A significant correlation was obtained between sex and causes of chronic monoarthritis (P value=0.012). Patients with various etiologies of chronic monoarthritis had significantly different mean age (P value<0.001).

 The knee joint was the most common site affected by monoarthritis. Pseudogout and osteoarthritis were the most common causes of acute and chronic arthritis, respectively.

 This study was conducted to shed light on the hidden relationships, trends, and patterns of the teenagers’ mental health dataset based on data mining techniques.

 The proposed method has four parts as follows: data preprocessing, data cleaning, target class selection, and extracting rules. The classes included inappropriate, moderate, and acceptable. The rules were extracted separately by implementing ID3, CHAID, and rule induction on the Caspian 5 dataset.

 It was found that the teenagers who rarely drink carbonated soda and have dinner seven days a week, have acceptable status of mental health. Besides, watching TV and playing computer games for 4 hours or more per week, drinking tea and packaged juices, eating cakes, cookies, pastries, biscuits, and chocolate weekly  could lead to inappropriate status of  mental health.

 An attempt to improve health especially in youth is one of the important concerns of every country.  The rules express the negative impact of soda on mental health. Besides, it can be concluded that there is a direct relationship between having breakfast and mental health.

 Burn wound infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibiting β-lactam antibiotic resistance are one of the greatest challenges of antimicrobial treatment. In this context, P. aeruginosa strains harboring resistance mechanisms, such as production of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases have the highest clinical impact no the management of burn wound infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial activity of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) against P. aeruginosa harboring Cefotaximase-Munich (CTX-M) gene strains.

 In this study, 60 isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from burn wound infections referred to major hospitals of Tehran, Iran. All strains were assessed for the presence of beta-lactamase CTX-M gene by polymerase chain reaction. In- vitro antibacterial effect of IONPs against P. aeruginosa harboring CTX-M strains was assessed by microdilution assay and CTX-M gene expression profile using Real-time PCR.

 Our results demonstrated that 12/60 isolates were identified to be CTX-M-producing P. aeruginosa with multidrug resistance phenotypes. Our results indicated that the CTX-M gene frequency was 20%. We found that the expression of CTX-M gene in P. aeruginosa strains treated with IONPs (6.21±4.1) was much lower than that of non-treated (9.73±2.02) nanoparticles (P=0.000). Also, IONPs at 256 μg/ml had inhibitory effect on the growth of P. aeruginosa by suppressing CTX-M expression.

 IONPs have potent antibacterial properties against P. aeruginosa through the suppression of CTX-M expression. According to our results, IONPs are promising tools for the development of new antimicrobial drugs against P. aeruginosa, since these composites have potential to decrease antibiotic resistance.

The 2019 Coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) has spread to over two hundred countries worldwide, affecting > 170 million people and causing >3,500,000 deaths (May 29, 2021). Severe COVID-19 disease mostly disturbs the respiratory system, but gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting, nausea and diarrhea, are also present. Herein, we are reporting a COVID-19 patient with acute pancreatitis (AP) in Zanjan, Iran. . This patient showed acute pancreatitis as a COVID-19-related complication, emphasizing the importance of evaluating pancreas-specific plasma amylase levels in patients with COVID-19 and intestinal cramping.

This is a report of a 17-year-old wrestler who had suffered from a sport injury during an international competition that led to recurrent shoulder dislocation. Physical examination showed that he had a severe ligamentous laxity. In the magnetic resonance images there were combined humeral avulsion of the glenohumeral ligament (HAGL) and Bankart lesions. Combination of Bankart and HAGL lesions, severe ligamentous laxity, being adolescent and requiring a full recovery to resume wrestling professionally, made this case unique. Here we explain his imaging and arthroscopic findings, the technique used for arthroscopic repair, and his midterm follow-up results.

Importance of this therapeutic method in Iran is more prominent than other countries in the world for two main reasons; the first one is plant richness, biodiversity, having 11 climates of 13 world-known climates, and diversity of 8000 plant species that are considered as an exclusive capacity in Iran. The second is considering the possibility of inadequate access to medicine at the international level for various reasons, including the lack of financial resources needed to prepare the drug, possible sanctions, or time-consuming access, which makes it even more necessary to pay attention to the importance of herbal medicines. According to what has been mentioned above, two short-term and long-term approaches are proposed to benefit from the regional capacity and potential of medicinal plants and to compensate for the lost date of medicinal plants. In the short-term solution, the codification and immediate implementation of comprehensive and infrastructure programs to prevent and manage the outbreak of the covid19 disease by highlighting the role of prevention in families. To reach this goal, we need to educate, and aware people of how to exploit and utilize medicinal plants effectively to strengthen their immune systems and also to treat this disease. The long-term approach is having the support of the government and policymakers in recognition the ancient Iranian medicine, valuing and designating funding in expanding researches in this field, advocacy the existing centers of traditional medicine, preventing the easy sailing of related raw products, and considering medicinal plants in the medical structure of the country.