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Background: The Isfahan COVID Cohort (ICC) study was designed to investigate the short- and long-term consequences of patients with COVID-19 in Iran. This report presents the rationale, methodology, and initial results of ICC. Materials and Methods: ICC is a 5-year multicentric prospective cohort study that is ongoing on two groups including 5000 patients hospitalized with moderate or severe and 800 nonhospitalized patients with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 in Isfahan. The ICC endpoints are morbidity, mortality, incident cases, or worsening of underlying noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors. In the current analysis, we examined the persistent symptoms and incident NCDs or risk factors in 819 previously hospitalized patients who completed 1-year follow-up. Results: The two most common symptoms were joint pain/myalgia (19.7%) and dry cough/dyspnea (18.7%). Around 60% of patients had at least one symptom which was more common among women than men and in middle aged than younger or older patients. Female (odds ratio [OR] =1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39–2.55) and highly-educated patients (OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.56–3.04) had higher risk of having any symptom in 1-year follow-up. New cases of hypertension followed by diabetes then coronary heart disease (CHD) were the most common incident NCDs. Conclusion: During 1-year follow-up after hospital discharge, about 60% of patients experienced persistent symptoms. Incident hypertension, diabetes, and CHD were the most common events seen. Close monitoring and extensive health services with integrative approaches are needed to improve the health status of these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary People with COVID‐19 infection continue to have their symptoms or develop new ones after recovery. This is called long‐COVID syndrome. We aimed to examine the association of general and abdominal obesity with long COVID. This study was conducted using Isfahan COVID Cohort (ICC). Totally 4008 including 3213 hospitalized and 795 non‐hospitalized patients with positive RT‐PCR were included. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were calculated. BMI >25 kg/m2 and WC >88 cm in women and 102 cm in men were considered generally and abdominally obese, respectively. By using an open‐ended questionnaire, subjects were asked whether they had any new or persistent symptom. Reported symptoms were categorized in three different fields including general, cardiac, and respiratory symptoms. Higher BMI and WC tended to increase general symptoms (odds ratio [OR] for BMI = 1.16, 95 % confidence interval (95% CI): 0.97, 1.38, and OR for WC = 1.14, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.32). Higher BMI significantly increased cardiovascular (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.67) and respiratory symptoms (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.78). Compared with patients with normal WC, the risk of cardiovascular (OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.24, 1.69) and respiratory symptoms was significantly higher in subjects with abdominal obesity (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.56). We found that general and abdominal obesity were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms in patients with long‐COVID symptoms. However, only general obesity was associated with increased risk of general symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Considering the high prevalence rate of congenital hypothyroidism CH in Iran, an epidemiological study in each region would be helpful in understanding the etiology of the disorder and providing preventative strategies in this field. This study aims to determine the prevalence of CH in different cities of the Isfahan province., Materials and Methods: This descriptive and retrospective study was conducted among 918 primarily diagnosed CH neonates, who have been identified through the neonatal screening program from 2009 to 2015. At the age of ≥3 years, treatment was discontinued for 4 weeks, and T4 and thyroid-stimulating hormone were measured. Permanent (PCH) or transient (TCH) was determined from the results of the thyroid function tests., Results: From 389,101 screened neonates, 918 were diagnosed with primary CH. The overall prevalence rate of CH was 2.36 in 1000 live birth (ranged 1.58-7.22 in 1000 live birth in different cities). The highest prevalence rate of CH was reported in Ardestan, Khansar, Golpaygan, and Nain cities with prevalence rate of 4.86-7.22 in 1000 live birth and lowest prevalence occurring in Fereydan, Shahreza, Isfahan, and Mobarakeh cities with prevalence rate of 1.58-1.89 in 1000 live birth. In 392 cases which reached to 3 years of age, the rate of TCH was 47.45%. In Chadegan, Natanz, Fereydunshahr, Shahinshahr, Najafabad, Dehaghan, Borkhar, and Mobarakeh, the prevalence of PCH was <50%., Conclusion: The current findings indicate that the incidence rate of both PCH and TCH are high in Isfahan province with significant variability in different cities which could be due to the role of different genetic, prenatal, and different environmental factors. These epidemiological data could be used as baseline date to design more etiological studies., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.