Seyedreza Mirsoleymani; Seyyed Mojtaba Nekooghadam; Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh; Mahmoudreza Peyravi; Ahmad Soltani; Simintaj Sharififar; Rita Rezaee; Mahnaz Ahmadi; Hossein Akbarialiabad
Volume 22, Issue 9 , 2020
Abstract
Background: The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a major concern for those who are more vulnerable to infections.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the most important risk factors for severe COVID-19 pneumonia.
Methods: This retrospective study included information ...
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Background: The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a major concern for those who are more vulnerable to infections.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the most important risk factors for severe COVID-19 pneumonia.
Methods: This retrospective study included information on clinical and epidemiological features of 105 patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia hospitalized in Tajrish Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Initially, the medical records of the patients were investigated, and an interview was conducted based on a pre-prepared checklist to seek information about symptoms, past medical history, medication history, and behavior before hospitalization.
Results: Out of 105 participants, 76 (72.5%) cases were male, and 54 (51.4%) patients were older than 54 years old. The majority of the patients (n=18; 17.1%) had both hypertension and diabetes (n=12; 11.4%). Metformin (n=36; 34.3%) was the most used medication amongst the studied patient. In addition, 24 (22.9%) patients were recreational hookah smokers, and the majority (75%) of them were under the age of 46 years old. Eventually, 19 patients were excluded from the study, of whom 11 individuals had diabetes, and 10 cases were using metformin.
Conclusion: Apparently, hookah smoking played a critical role in the spread of COVID-19 in Iran and has made younger people more susceptible. In addition to older age, the immunosuppressive effects of Metformin seem to make diabetic patients with an impaired immune system more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 pneumonia. More studies on the immune system of vulnerable individuals by identifying their differences can help to protect them.
Behzad Rahimi; Reza Hajizadeh; Hamidreza Poorhosseini; Ebrahim Nematipour
Volume 22, Issue 8 , 2020
Abstract
Background: The assessment of potential benefits and harms of a medical procedure is essential for both physicians and patients to make an informed choice among treatment options. There is a paucity of studies on the role of creatine kinase-MB (CKMB) in the prediction of patient outcome after elective ...
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Background: The assessment of potential benefits and harms of a medical procedure is essential for both physicians and patients to make an informed choice among treatment options. There is a paucity of studies on the role of creatine kinase-MB (CKMB) in the prediction of patient outcome after elective percutaneous intervention
Objectives: The current study aimed to assess the association of CKMB level with demographic characteristics and major adverse cardiac events (MACES) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stent implantation.
Methods: The study was conducted based on the data concerning the consecutive patients hospitalized for PCI and followed for 12 months. We examined the association between CKMB levels at 12 h post-PCI in patients with drug-eluting stent implantation and demographic characteristics. MACEs were defined as death, myocardial infarction, the need for re-revascularization in the first 48 h after the procedure and during a 1-year follow-up in 2898 patients who underwent PCI in Tehran Heart Center within 2015-2016.
Results: In multivariate logistic regression, after adjustment for differences, no relationship was observed between CKMB level at 12 h post-PCI and 12-month MACEs; nonetheless, in-hospital MACEs were higher in patients who had CKMB> 3 times the upper limit of normal. Furthermore, thrombus, angulated segment, and coronary perforation during the procedure were more prevalent in patients with higher CKMB levels.
Conclusion: The obtained results demonstrated that in patients with elective drug-eluting stent implantation, the moderate elevation of post-procedural CKMB>3 times was associated with in-hospital MACEs. Moreover, no association was found between 1-year adverse events and >3 times the elevation of CKMB.
Samira Faraji; Rasoul Zarrin; Asma Zamanian; Reza Hajizadeh; Parvin Ayremlou; Behzad Rahimi
Volume 22, Issue 7 , 2020
Abstract
Background: Hypertension is one of the most serious global concerns since it has affected over 1.2 billion people.
Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and lipid profile in hypertensive patients with ...
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Background: Hypertension is one of the most serious global concerns since it has affected over 1.2 billion people.
Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and lipid profile in hypertensive patients with vitamin D deficiency.
Methods: In this double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial study, 116 hypertensive patients (intervention and placebo groups, 58 each) with vitamin D deficiency (< 30 ng/mL with ECL) for 14 weeks, started from the beginning of autumn 2019 in Seyed-al-Shohada Educational Hospital in Urmia City. Fifty-five patients (49%) were male with the mean vitamin D 15.89 ± 5.09 ng/mL and 57 females with 17.29 ± 6.31 ng/mL. In a stratified blocked randomization scheme, the patients were randomly allocated into similar sized intervention and control groups based on body mass index (BMI), then the randomization with four block size was performed in each of strata by random allocation software. The intervention group received six doses of 50,000 IU vitamin D supplements for 6 weeks, then two supplements for two following months (one capsule per month). Blood pressure (24/h blood pressure measured by an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring device), vitamin D, FBS, and lipid profile (HDL, LDL, CL, and TG) were all measured at baseline and end of the study. Physical activity (measured by short IPAQ questionnaire), sun exposure using a questionnaire, dietary intake of vitamin D using three 24-hour recalls during the intervention, and anthropometric indices were measured at baseline, middle, and end of the study. Fifty-six patients in each group completed the study. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Urmia University of Medical Sciences (ethics code: IR.UMSU.REC.1398.192).
Results: The office blood pressure, 24-h systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), nighttime SBP and DBP were significantly reduced in the intervention group compared to the control group, whereas the reduction of daytime SBP and DBP was not statistically significant. Vitamin D supplementation significantly decreased serum triglyceride, cholesterol, and LDL levels.
Conclusions: Vitamin D supplementation had positive effects on blood pressure, triglyceride, cholesterol, and LDL levels in patients with low serum vitamin D.