Search

Introduction: Telephone follow-up is known for sharing information, providing health education, diagnosing complications quickly, managing symptoms, and providing quality aftercare services. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of patient education and telephone follow-up on self-care and self-efficacy as well as readmission rate of heart patients with COVID-19. Material and Methods: In this interventional study, 64 heart patients with COVID-19 admitted to a training center in northern Iran during the period from June 1 to September 22, in 2020 were intervened. Data collection tools included demographic and clinical questionnaires, Scherer self-care and self-efficacy questionnaires. After completing the questionnaires and teaching self-care about corona disease and heart disease to patients during six sessions over the phone (10-20 minutes), the researcher again completed the self-care and self-efficacy questionnaires on the fourteenth day. For data analysis, paired t-test and independent t-test were used using SPSS software version 21. Results: The mean age of participants was 59.53±15.32. The results showed that the mean score of self- care after the intervention had a significant increase (P

Background: Lymphopenia is an important but nonspecific laboratory indicator of COVID-19. Objectives: To describe epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of the first cases of the COVID-19 referred to a center dedicated to COVID-19 patients in Iran. Methods: This research is a retrospective cross-sectional study on 100 confirmed cases with COVID-19, hospitalized from February 25 to March 10, 2020, in Qaemshahr Razi Hospital in Mazandaran Province, Iran. The main demographic data, clinical features, including outcomes, laboratory findings, and therapeutic protocols, were collected in a structured form and analyzed. Results: The Mean±SD age of the patients was 56.7±15.6 years. Fifty-nine percent (n=59) of the patients were male. Nineteen percent (n=19) were admitted to the ICU. The median (IQR) time from disease onset to hospital admission was 5 (3-7) days. The most common symptoms were fever (73%), dyspnea (67%), dry cough (61%), and myalgia (61%). The severity of the disease was moderate in most patients (n=54). The average hospital stay for patients was 7 days. The non-survivor cases in comparison to survived ones were from a higher age group (65 vs 52 years; P=0.001), had a higher frequency of underlying diseases (68.4% vs 39.5%; P=0.039), had a lower peripheral capillary O2 saturation at the time of admission (79% vs 94%; P

Background: In late December 2019, a kind of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. This virus rapidly spread worldwide and infected 195 countries and territories, including Iran. By March 22, 2020, the virus had affected more than 40000 people worldwide and caused more than 19000 deaths. Pregnant women are a vulnerable group to viral infections because partial immune suppression occurs during pregnancy. Therefore, the COVID-19 epidemic may cause a rising global concern about its consequences for pregnant women and fetuses. Objectives:In this case study, we report the delivery of a pregnant woman after her COVID-19 confirmation. Methods: We report a 44-year-old pregnant woman (32 weeks gestation) with COVID-19 who gave birth to a healthy baby with no evidence of COVID-19. We did not observe any worse clinical outcomes, such as maternal mortality, stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, and preterm delivery. Results: A preterm baby girl with 2500 g weight and Apgar scores at 5 minutes and 10 minutes were 9 and 10 was delivered. The preterm baby was normocephalic, had no icteric sclera, and the heart sounded normal without murmurs, Lung ventilation was normal. Conclusion: Viral pneumonia may severely be presented in pregnancy because of physiological and immunological changes and shift from cell-mediated to humoral-mediated immunity during the pregnancy period. Vertical transmission of COVID-19 from mother to child, shortterm and long-term adverse effects on mother and newborn are still unclear and controversial.

Introduction: Hepatitis A (HA) is a common infectious disease caused by the HA virus that primarily affects the liver. We need to determine the safety status and infection rate in the community. Therefore, we decided to study the Seroepidemiological of HA in medical students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2019.Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study prospectively examining anti-HAV antibodies in medical students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2019. Patient demographic data, laboratory results of anti-HAV IgG and vaccination history were recorded. Four cc of blood were drawn from each student for the anti-HAV IgG test and after the test was performed. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 software.Results: One hundred and fifty-five students were interviewed. The mean age (standard deviation) of the students in this study was 23.81 (1.47) years. Ninety-nine (63.9%) of the students were male. Therefore, it was caused by previous infection with HAV and 120 (77.4%) cases were considered susceptible individuals whose serum anti-HAV IgG was negative. This was not seen to be statistically significant (P=0.754). According to the test, 77.4% of the predictions were correct. None of the variables of sex, age, history of underlying disease, place of residence, and history of travel had a significant effect on the incidence and positivity of anti-HAV IgG.Conclusion: This study showed that the incidence of anti-HAV IgG was positive in 22.6% of the students, which is much lower than previous studies. This may be due to the higher level of health in this segment of the population.

Background and Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Candida prostatic valve endocarditis present various clinical manifestations which may overlap;hence, discrimination between them is extremely difficult. Case report: The case was a 66-year-old man with a past medical history of mitral and aortic valves replacement one year before COVID-19 co-infection. He was admitted with fever (for 7 days), shortness of breath, cough, seizure, lethargy,headache, and 85% oxygen saturation. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed multiple large-sized, highly mobile masses on both sides of the mechanical mitral valve highly suggestive of vegetation. Chest computed tomography scanning showed simulating scattered COVID-19 peripheral ground-glass opacities confirmed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. The set of blood cultures yielded yeast colonies that were identified as Candida tropicalis. The patient died of septic shock shortly after receiving antifungal therapy. Conclusion: This case emphasized the importance of early diagnosis and implementation of antifungal treatment, particularly in patients with prosthetic cardiac valves, to reduce their unfavorable outcomes in COVID-19 patients.

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic, life-threatening, and contagious infectious. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological, clinical, and paraclinical findings of TB in Qaemshahr.Material and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we investigated all patients with TB who had registered and existing data from 2010 to 2017. Demographical data, clinical and paraclinical characteristics including family history of disease, disease type (pulmonary and extrapulmonary), smear and culture results, underlying disease, chest X-ray results were extracted from records. Data were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 22.Results: Out of 290 patients, 61.4% were male (178 cases), and 38.6% (112 cases) were female. The mean age was 21.75 ± 21.25 years. 70.7% were pulmonary, and 29.3% were extrapulmonary. 60.3% were in urban areas and 39.7% in rural areas. The largest organ involved was lung (70.7%). 95.5% were diagnosed as new. The smear was negative in 53.8% of patients. 44.8% of patients were smear-positive. The culture result was positive in 54.5% of patients with TB. In the case of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), smear, 11.7% of patients had a positive result. The negative result of BAL smear was observed in 88.3% of cases.Conclusion: Awareness of various forms and clinical symptoms, radiographic findings in people with TB help to early detection of the disease.

The primary malignant tumor that most commonly metastasizes to the skin in women is breast cancer and manifest variety forms of clinical presentation. Breast cancer has the ability to metastasize to any site such as the ovaries, lung, liver, bone, brain, gastrointestinal tract and skin. The skin is not a common site for metastatic spread. We would like to report a case of a 56 years old female patient with an infectious mass in her left inframammary fold with discharge. The patients had a one-year history of left breast pruritus and with a mass which increased in size over two months. There was axillary lymphadenopathy, tenderness, and erythema of breast skin around the mass in the physical examination and just elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate in laboratory tests. The patient did not benefit from antimicrobial therapy. The histological examination revealed a tumor with sheets of malignant cells and many necrotic areas. The diagnosis was invasive ductal breast carcinoma, cutaneous metastases, and lymphatic embolization.