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Background and aims: Organophosphate compounds are the most popular insecticides with the widespread application in pest control. These toxic compounds interfere with the blood cholinesterase and inhibit the cholinestarse activity. Measurement of Cholinesterase activity is widely used for diagnosis of poisoning and adverse effects caused by pesticides. Green-house workers are one of the important occupational groups with the high risk of poisoning with organophosphate and karbamat pesticides. The purpose of this study was to assess the exposure of green-house workers with anti-cholinesterase toxic compounds by measuring the blood cholinesterase activity using electrometric method. Methods: This research is a descriptive cross sectional study that carried out on farmers of the cucumber green-houses. In this study, 40 workers were selected and their blood cholinesterase enzyme activity were measured using electrometric method. In electrometric method the reduction of cholinesterase activity can be measured through recording the changes of blood pH induced by anticholinestrase agents. The results were analyzed by version16 of spss software. Results: Based on the obtained results the amount of erythrocyte cholinesterase enzyme inhibition was between 1.77% to 35.4% and the mean and standard deviation was 23.2% ±9.68. Similarly, the amount of plasma cholinesterase enzyme inhibition was between1% to 28% and the mean and standard deviation was equal to 16.57 ±7.92. Following the analysis of results 25% (n=10) of the workers were identified with no poisoning, 17.5% (n = 7) with minor poisoning, 55% (n=22) with moderate poisoning and 2.5% (n=1) with severe poisoning. Conclusion: Organophosphate poisoning has been reported as the third cause of poisoning and also the leading cause of poisoning deaths in our country.Therefore, considering the results of this research and the importance of the evaluation of workers exposure to organophosphate pesticides it can be stated that the use of electrometric method is a valuable tool for biological monitoring of exposed populations. As this method is simple, portable and not expensive and at the same time provides high precision, it has a potential to be applied for screening and early diagnosis of organophosphate poisonings inlarge-scale studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidemiological data regarding the prevalence of bacterial multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative infections in patients with COVID-19 in Iran are still ambiguous. Thus, in this study we have investigated the epidemiology, risk factors for death, and clinical outcomes of bacterial infections among patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU)., Method: This retrospective cohort study included patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the ICU of a university hospital in Iran between June 2021 and December 2021. We evaluated the epidemiological, clinical, and microbiological features, outcomes and risk factors associated with death among all COVID-19 patients. Data and outcomes of these patients with or without bacterial infections were compared. Kaplan-Meier plot was used for survival analyses., Results: In total, 505 COVID-19 patients were included. The mean age of the patients was 52.7 ± 17.6 years and 289 (57.2%) were female. The prevalence of bacterial infections among hospitalized patients was 14.9%, most of them being hospital-acquired superinfections (13.3%). MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were the most common pathogens causing respiratory infections. Urinary tract infections were most frequently caused by MDR Escherichia coli and K. pneumoniae . The overall in-hospital mortality rate of COVID-19 patients was 46.9% (237/505), while 78.7% (59/75) of patients with bacterial infections died. Infection was significantly associated with death (OR 6.01, 95% CI = 3.03-11.92, p -value <0.0001) and a longer hospital stay ( p  < 0.0001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that Age (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.03-1.06, p -value <0.0001), Sex male (OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.08-2.70, p -value <0.0001), Spo2 (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.18-3.38, p -value = 0.010) and Ferritin (OR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.37-3.97, p -value = 0.002) were independent risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality. Furthermore, 95.3% (221/232) of patients who were intubated died., Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that bacterial infection due to MDR Gram-negative bacteria associated with COVID-19 has an expressive impact on increasing the case mortality rate, reinforcing the importance of the need for surveillance and strict infection control rules to limit the expansion of almost untreatable microorganisms., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Akbari, Dehghani, Shirzadi, Pourajam, Hosseinzadeh, Sajadi, Alenaseri, Siavash, Jafari and Solgi.)

Background and Aims: Paravalvular leak (PVL) is a serious complication of prosthetic valve replacement. Both surgical and percutaneous closure techniques are used for PVL closure, but optimal strategies and comparative outcomes are uncertain. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of percutaneous versus surgical PVL closure by analyzing changes in leak severity, functional status, echocardiographic parameters, and clinical outcomes., Methods: A total of 72 patients were included in this retrospective cross-sectional single-center study comparing percutaneous ( n  = 25) and surgical ( n  = 47) PVL closure from 2015 to 2022. Demographics, medical history, echocardiograms, laboratory data, complications, and mortality data were extracted from the records. Changes in leak severity, NYHA class, echocardiographic parameters, and clinical outcomes were compared between the percutaneous and surgical groups., Results: Both percutaneous and surgical PVL closure significantly reduced leak severity and improved NYHA class (both p  < 0.01), with no difference between the quantity of changes in each group. The 30-day mortality was 4% after percutaneous and 6.4% after surgical closure ( p  = 0.65). At 90 days, mortality was 24% percutaneous versus 17% surgical ( p  = 0.48). The length of stay in the hospital and post-procedural decrease in hemoglobin were considerably lower in the percutaneous group. The rate of complication rates was similar between the groups. Echocardiographic changes were also comparable., Conclusion: Percutaneous and surgical PVL closure had similar efficacy in reducing leaks and improving symptoms, with no significant difference in early outcomes. Both options should be considered viable for PVL repair after heart team evaluation., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objective: Allergic diseases have different levels of prevalence all over the world. Among them, asthma is the most common chronic disease. Up to now, little attention has been paid to the impact of this chronic disease on people's executive functions. The present study aimed at comparing the executive functions in patients with chronic asthma and healthy subjects., Methods: The study population was patients with chronic asthma who were referred to Al-Zahra hospital in Isfahan Province and their visitors who were assigned as the control group. Thirty patients with chronic asthma and 30 patient visitors were enrolled in this study, and three software programs (Wisconsin, Stroop, and Continuous Performance Tests) were used., Results: The results of multivariate variance analysis showed that there is a significant difference between patients with chronic asthma and healthy subjects in terms of set shifting, inhibition, and attention performance., Conclusions: This study revealed that the executive functions of patients with chronic asthma have significant defects.