somaye bazdar

On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 as a public health emergency. In the present study, we compared the preventative and therapeutic strategies and the success rates of Iran and Switzerland during the COVID-19 outbreak.Materialsand

This study was conducted using electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. In addition, the official documents of developed countries and WHO from 1st February until 15th May 2020 were studied. Relevant documents were reviewed in detail, and vital data were extracted.

Both countries have restriction policies to reduce the infection rate in the prevention setting. These policies, such as the recommendation to all citizens to stay home unless necessary, army participation, and non-face-to-face counseling, were surveyed by similar techniques in both countries. Some policies were implemented in both countries with different protocols. These policies, including social distancing practices, smart distancing methods, business activities, border closures, border controls, and restrictions, travel restrictions, testing and screening for infection and fever, and decreased working hours, were performed in both countries. In the treatment setting, the therapeutic strategy used in Iran consisted of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine phosphate and anti-viral drugs. Switzerland followed the guidelines of the European countries. The infection rate, recovery rate, and death rate were 0.139%, 78.73%, and 5.91% in Iran, while these rates were 0.352%, 88.81%, and 6.15% in Switzerland, respectively.

Due to the lack of special treatment for the disease, prevention must be considered the most important factor in policymaking. Importantly, observing social distance is the most effective method among the preventative strategies. The capacity of the health care systems to provide optimal services and facilities is an important factor for patients ‘recovery

To investigate possible links between thyroid dysfunction and prevalence of wet age‑related macular degeneration (AMD).

The present case–control study enrolled a total number of 90 patients with wet AMD and 90 sex‑, and age‑matched controls through a convenient sequential sampling method. Thyroid hormones were profiled in serum assay. Statistical measures were done to compare means between groups.

Our findings showed a significant difference in free T4 levels between wet AMD and control groups (P = 0.002), but the mean values of total T3 and Thyroid‑stimulating hormone levels were similar between the two groups. In addition, there were no differences in serum lipid profile between groups. Although no significant difference in the history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia between wet AMD and control groups was found, the history of smoking was higher in controls (P = 0.039).

Thyroid hormone abnormalities may be associated with wet AMD.

Color vision has an important role in daily activities and also learning special talents in different jobs, especially in the field of medicine. However, they are many people all over the world that has no insight into their color blindness and choose the study fields that are completely dependent on vision. Due to the importance of color vision in the field of medicine, we conducted this study to evaluate the prevalence of color blindness in Mashhad medical school, Mashhad, Iran.

A total number of 200 male medical students from June to September 2016 were enrolled in this study by a simple sampling method. Ishihara test was applied for the evaluation of color vision. Required data were written down in questionnaire sheets, which were designed for this study. A T-test was used to compare the mean value of quantitative data. Chi-square test and Fisher exact test were used to compare the qualitative data in different groups.

The results of the current study showed that among 200 participants who were evaluated in this study, 8 of them (4%) suffered from color blindness. Among these 8 color blinded cases, 6 of them (75%) had the insight into their disease while 2 of them (25%) had no insight into their condition. Moreover, the results of evaluating the type of color blindness showed that 7 of them had green-red color blindness, while 1 of them had complete color blindness.

Comparing results of the current study with previous ones, we concluded that color blindness has a lower prevalence in our study population (4%), in comparison with the general population (8%). Moreover, obtained results about patients’ insight into their disease showed that a considerable percentage of cases (25%) had no insight to their disease, which indicates the importance of conducting color blindness screening test for medical students due to the importance of color vision in the field of medicine.

To estimate the pooled prevalence and incidence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Iran and to investigate their correlations with the Human Development Index (HDI), healthcare access (i.e., density of specialists and sub-specialists), and methodological issues.

Electronic databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and local databases were searched for cohort and cross-sectional studies published prior to January 2018. Prevalence and incidence rates of DR were extracted from January 2000 to December 2017 and random effects models were used to estimate pooled effect sizes. The Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool was applied for quality assessment of eligible studies.

A total of 55,445 participants across 33 studies were included. The pooled prevalence (95% CI) of DR in diabetic clinics (22 studies), eye clinics (4 studies), and general population (7 studies) was 31.8% (24.5 to 39.2), 57.8% (50.2 to 65.3), and 29.6% (22.6 to 36.5), respectively. It was 7.4% (3.9 to 10.8) for proliferative DR and 7.1% (4.9 to 9.4) for clinically significant macular edema. The heterogeneity of individual estimates of prevalence was highly significant. HDI (𝑃 < 0.001), density of specialists (𝑃 = 0.004), subspecialists (𝑃 < 0.001), and sampling site (𝑃 = 0.041) were associated with heterogeneity after the adjustment for type of DR, duration of diabetes, study year, and proportion of diabetics with controlled HbA1C.

Human development and healthcare access were correlated with the prevalence of DR. Data were scarce on the prevalence of DR in less developed provinces. Participant recruitment in eye clinics might overestimate the prevalence of DR.

To determine the effects of pregnancy on the presentation, management, surgical and obstetrics outcome of patients with acute appendicitis.
This prospective cohort study was conducted during a 2-year period from 2014 to 2016 in Shahid Faghihi hospital of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. We enrolled all the pregnant individuals with acute appendicitis who required surgical appendectomy. We also enrolled age-matched controls of non-pregnant women undergoing open appendectomy during the study period. The presentation, clinical and laboratory characteristics, surgical and obstetrics outcomes were determined in both study groups and were further compared between them. In order to determine the determinants of outcome, we also ran a multivariate logistic regression model.
Overall we included a total number of 584 patients with presumed appendicitis among whom there were 58 (9.94%) and 526 (90.06%) non-pregnant individuals. The pregnant patients had significantly longer duration of symptoms (p=0.038), lower temperature (p=0.026), longer duration of hospital stay (p=0.026) and higher rate of hospital admission longer than 2 days (p=0.031). The complications of the surgical procedure were comparable between the two study groups except for the pneumonia which was significantly higher in pregnant patient (p=0.041). After adjusting for confounders such as age and ethnicity, pregnancy remained significantly associated with lower temperature (p=0.018), longer symptom duration (p=0.042) and higher rate of pneumonia (p=0.049).
Acute appendicitis during the pregnancy was associated with longer duration of symptoms, lower body temperature and higher rate of pneumonia. The pregnancy and neonatal outcomes were comparable to the previously reported data.