All of humans and other mammalian species are colonized by some types of microorganisms such as bacteria, archaea, unicellular eukaryotes like fungi and protozoa, multicellular eukaryotes like ...helminths, and viruses, which in whole are called microbiota. These microorganisms have multiple different types of interaction with each other. A plethora of evidence suggests that they can regulate immune and digestive systems and also play roles in various diseases, such as mental, cardiovascular, metabolic and some skin diseases. In addition, they take-part in some current health problems like diabetes mellitus, obesity, cancers and infections. Viral infection is one of the most common and problematic health care issues, particularly in recent years that pandemics like SARS and COVID-19 caused a lot of financial and physical damage to the world. There are plenty of articles investigating the interaction between microbiota and infectious diseases. We focused on stimulatory to suppressive effects of microbiota on viral infections, hoping to find a solution to overcome this current pandemic. Then we reviewed mechanistically the effects of both microbiota and probiotics on most of the viruses. But unlike previous studies which concentrated on intestinal microbiota and infection, our focus is on respiratory system's microbiota and respiratory viral infection, bearing in mind that respiratory system is a proper entry site and residence for viruses, and whereby infection, can lead to asymptomatic, mild, self-limiting, severe or even fatal infection. Finally, we overgeneralize the effects of microbiota on COVID-19 infection. In addition, we reviewed the articles about effects of the microbiota on coronaviruses and suggest some new therapeutic measures.
Gastric cancer (GC) has been found to be the second leading cause of cancer-associated deaths in the world, and is usually detected in the advanced stages. It has been shown that surgery is the major ...therapeutic approach in the treatment of subjects with GC. Hence, early and fast diagnosis of this malignancy is very important for good subject outcomes. Non-invasive diagnostic platforms, including evolutionary endoscopy and positron emission tomography (PET), are employed for the diagnosis of subjects with GC. Along with imaging techniques, the utilization of biomarkers has emerged as a new diagnosis option for early and fast detection of GC. Multiple lines of evidence have revealed a variety of biomarkers, including microRNAs, exosomes, circulating tumor cells, circular RNAs, cell free DNAs, and various proteins, which could be used as diagnostic biomarkers in patients with GC. Taken together, these findings suggest that the joint application of imaging techniques and different biomarkers could be introduced as a new detection approach in the treatment and screening response to therapy in the subjects with GC. Herein, we have summarized various imaging techniques and biomarkers as powerful tools in the detection of GC.
Background
Purpose of this study was to deliver a report of chest CT findings of COVID-19-infected pediatric and adult patients and to make an age-based comparison. A systematic search was conducted ...in accordance with PRISMA guidelines to identify relevant studies in the electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Web of Sciences from January 1, 2020 to March 27, 2020 using search terms in the titles and abstracts. Based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria, 762 articles were screened. Finally, 15 eligible articles which had adequate data on chest CT findings of COVID-19-infected patients were enrolled in this systematic review.
Results
In pediatric patients (15 years old or younger), peripheral distribution was found in 100% of cases, ground glass opacities (GGO) in 55.2%, bilateral involvement in 50%, halo sign in 50%, unilateral involvement in 30%, consolidation in 22.2%, crazy paving pattern in 20%, nodular opacities in 15%, pleural effusion in 4.2%, lymphadenopathy in none, and normal imaging in 20.8% of cases. On the other hand, in adult patients, bilateral involvement was reported in 76.8%, GGO in 68.4%, peripheral distribution in 62.2%, mixed GGO and consolidation in 48.7%, consolidation in 33.7%, crazy paving pattern in 27.7%, mixed central and peripheral distribution in 25.0%, unilateral involvement in 15.2%, nodular opacities in 9.2%, pleural effusion in 5.5%, central distribution of lesions in 5.4%, lymphadenopathy in 2.4%, and normal imaging in 9.8% of cases.
Conclusion
According to the findings of this systematic review, children infected with COVID-19 can present with normal or atypical findings (nodular opacities/unilateral involvement) in chest imaging more frequently than adult patients. Therefore, more caution should be taken to avoid misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis in infected children. Besides, clinical and laboratory findings need to be considered more decision-making for pediatric patients with normal or atypical chest CT scan but high suspicion of COVID-19.
Spreading swiftly across the borders and over the seas, severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2), as causative pathogen of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is ...currently the main global public health concern. “Cannonball appearance,” as a rare and yet underrated CT feature of COVID-19 pneumonia, has been typically linked to certain hematogenous pulmonary metastases and some inflammatory/infection conditions, including tuberculosis, but no other viral or atypical pneumonia. Cannonball appearance can bring diagnostic dilemmas and difficulties in monitoring treatment response in patients with or suspicious for hematogenous pulmonary metastasis. Hereby, we report two cases of COVID-19 delta variant-induced pneumonia manifesting unusually in chest CT scan with cannonball appearance.
Purpose. To investigate the factors contributing to mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) and design a model to predict the mortality ...rate. Method. We retrospectively evaluated the medical records and CT images of the ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients who had an on-admission chest CT scan. We analyzed the patients’ demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiologic findings and compared them between survivors and nonsurvivors. Results. Among the 121 enrolled patients (mean age, 62.2 ± 14.0 years; male, 82 (67.8%)), 41 (33.9%) survived, and the rest succumbed to death. The most frequent radiologic findings were ground-glass opacity (GGO) (71.9%) with peripheral (38.8%) and bilateral (98.3%) involvement, with lower lobes (94.2%) predominancy. The most common additional findings were cardiomegaly (63.6%), parenchymal band (47.9%), and crazy-paving pattern (44.4%). Univariable analysis of radiologic findings showed that cardiomegaly p:0.04, pleural effusion p:0.02, and pericardial effusion p:0.03 were significantly more prevalent in nonsurvivors. However, the extension of pulmonary involvement was not significantly different between the two subgroups (11.4 ± 4.1 in survivors vs. 11.9 ± 5.1 in nonsurvivors, p:0.59). Among nonradiologic factors, advanced age p:0.002, lower O2 saturation p:0.01, diastolic blood pressure p:0.02, and hypertension p:0.03 were more commonly found in nonsurvivors. There was no significant difference between survivors and nonsurvivors in terms of laboratory findings. Three following factors remained significant in the backward logistic regression model: O2 saturation (OR: 0.91 (95% CI: 0.84–0.97), p:0.006), pericardial effusion (6.56 (0.17–59.3), p:0.09), and hypertension (4.11 (1.39–12.2), p:0.01). This model had 78.7% sensitivity, 61.1% specificity, 90.0% positive predictive value, and 75.5% accuracy in predicting in-ICU mortality. Conclusion. A combination of underlying diseases, vital signs, and radiologic factors might have prognostic value for mortality rate prediction in ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients.
Background
This study aims to review chest computed tomography (CT) scanning parameters which are utilized to evaluate patients for COVID-19-induced pneumonia. Also, some of radiation dose reduction ...techniques in CT would be mentioned, because using these techniques or low-dose protocol can decrease the radiation burden on the population.
Main body
Chest CT scan can play a key diagnostic role in COVID-19 patients. Additionally, it can be useful to monitor imaging changes during treatment. However, CT scan overuse during the COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns about radiation-induced adverse effects, both in patients and healthcare workers.
Conclusion
By evaluating the CT scanning parameters used in several studies, one can find the necessity for optimizing these parameters. It has been found that chest CT scan taken using low-dose CT protocol is a reliable diagnostic tool to detect COVID-19 pneumonia in daily practice. Moreover, the low-dose chest CT protocol results in a remarkable reduction (up to 89%) in the radiation dose compared to the standard-dose protocol, not lowering diagnostic accuracy of COVID-19-induced pneumonia in CT images. Therefore, its employment in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic is highly recommended.
Purpose
In recent years, core needle biopsy (CNB) technique has received much attention, being used as alternative method of tissue sampling for surgical biopsy of salivary gland tumors (SGTs). The ...present study aimed to evaluate the value of CNB in differentiating benign from malignant SGTs.
Materials and methods
Patients with suspected benign or malignant SGTs in imaging were enrolled in this study. All core needle biopsies were performed under ultrasound guidance, i.e. ultrasound-guided Core Needle Biopsy (USCNB). Histological examination of the specimen after surgical excision was regarded as gold standard test and set as reference standard to assess USCNB accuracy for discriminating between ultrasound-visible benign and malignant SGTs.
Results
Based on USCNB results, from 36 participants (14 women and 22 men) with SGTs, 44.4% of detected tumors were benign and 55.5% were malignant. Twenty-two patients underwent surgery and postoperative specimen histological examination showed that 59% of excised lesions were benign and 41% were malignant. USCNB and surgical biopsy (SB) findings were completely compatible for 21 patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of USCNB were 100% in differentiating malignant from benign lesions.
Conclusion
USCNB is a valuable and accurate method of diagnosis with high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing benign from malignant ultrasound-visible SGTs.
Purpose
This study aimed at evaluating the value of uterine biophysical profile (UBP) scoring to predict the pregnancy rate after IUI.
Methods
This prospective study was carried out on 85 women who ...were referred to our tertiary teaching center with infertility of male factor or unknown etiology infertility in 2018. To measure the uterine biophysical criteria, transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) was performed on the day of beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (B-hCG) injection, and the results were evaluated based on positive B-hCG.
Results
85 patients were included with a mean age of 30 years; of those 12 (14.1%) were able to conceive. UBP (
p
= 0.151) and it’s parameters (including endometrial thickness, number of endometrial layers, myometrial echogenicity, uterine artery pulsatility index, myometrial blood flow internal to arcuate vessels, endometrial blood flow in the third zone of endometrium, myometrial contraction frequency, and ovarian follicle (OF) size
p
= 0.05, 0.89, 0.59, 0.79, 1, 1, 0.59, and 0.77, respectively) were not significantly associated with pregnancy rate. 91.7% of the cases with positive pregnancy test results, had a UBP score of > 13; however, UBP score was not meaningfully associated with IUI treatment success rate (
p
= 0.15).
Conclusions
UBP scoring system seems to need more data for external validation, or it might require modifications before implementation, as it may cause false reassurance.
The iliac vein is an extremely rare site of metastasis for extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma (ESMC). Involvement of the veins usually leads to an extremely dismal prognosis. Here, we report a ...50‐year‐old patient with retroperitoneal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma and initial metastasis to the iliac bone, which further progressed to involve the iliac vein. In this study, we reviewed the major characteristics of ESMC and the previously reported cases, considering the rarity of these tumors.
Extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma, a rare malignant neoplasm, has high local and metastatic recurrence rate and poor survival. We report here a rare case of iliac vein metastasis in ESMC. Surgical removal of the lesion remains the “gold standard” of treatment for localized tumors. For unresectable, advanced lesions, palliative chemotherapy is recommended.
Prior studies have reported that curcumin is inversely associated with reduced markers of atherosclerosis risk, including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). This study was designed to assess the ...effects of curcumin on CIMT and pulse wave velocity (PWV) in diabetic hemodialysis (HD) patients.
This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 39 diabetic HD patients. People were assigned to receive curcumin or placebo (starch) for 24 weeks. Individuals in the curcumin group (
= 26) received 80 mg/day. CIMT and PWV levels were taken at baseline and after 24 weeks of intervention.
After 24 weeks of intervention, curcumin intake did not affect mean levels of left (
= 0.83) and right (
= 0.47) CIMT and maximum levels of left (
= 0.84) and right (
= 0.11) CIMT, and PWV (P = 0.12) compared to the placebo. Furthermore, within-group difference demonstrated a significant reduction in mean levels of PWV (
= 0.01) in the curcumin group. We did not observe any significant change in C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations after curcumin intake (
= 0.69).
Curcumin intake did not affect mean levels of left and right CIMT and maximum levels of left and right CIMT, PWV, and CRP levels compared to the placebo. Additionally, within-group difference demonstrated a significant reduction in mean levels of PWV in the curcumin group.This trial was registered at www.irct.ir as http://www.irct.ir: IRCT20200527047584N1.
PDF
