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This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a Persian version of the pandemic grief scale (PGS) using a sample of 473 people who had experienced the death of a loved one to coronavirus (Covid-19). The results of this study demonstrated that this version of the PGS has internal consistency reliability (omega coefficient of 0.86) and test-retest reliability with an interval of three weeks (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89) scores in the highly reliable ranges. Confirmatory factor analysis results of a uni-dimensional model support the construct validity of this version of the PGS, while convergent and divergent validity was shown with significant correlations between the PGS and measures of depression, anxiety, functional impairment, and hope. Overall, the Persian version of the PGS showed good psychometric properties in the Iranian population. © 2023, Cruse Bereavement Care. All rights reserved.
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Background: COVID-19 is associated with higher mortality rates in patients with cancer. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes, and laboratory and imaging data of patients with solid tumor infected with COVID-19 infection. Method(s): This is a cross-sectional retrospective study performed in 2020-2022 on 85 patients with a previous diagnosis of solid tumors infected with COVID-19. We included all patients with tumors of solid organs that were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection and required hospitalization those patients previously hospitalized for treatments and were infected with COVID-19 during hospitalization. Demographic data of patients were collected using a checklist. We collected data regarding clinical outcome (discharge, hospitalization or death), duration of hospitalization, requiring ICU admission, duration of hospitalization divided by received drugs and type of tumor and mean survival time. Furthermore, we collected laboratory data from all patients. The radiologic characteristics of patients were also extracted from their data. Result(s): Breast cancer was the most common solid tumor (34.9%), followed by lung cancer (19.3%). The mortality rate was 24.1% (20 patients). The highest mortality rate in this study was for metastatic intestinal cancer to the lung (100%, one patient), followed by metastatic prostatic cancer to lung (50%, three patients). The highest hospitalization duration was for patients with glioblastoma multiform (GBM) (30 days). The mean survival time among patients with mortality was 19.15+/-1.80 days. The mean CT severity score of all patients was 27.53+/-22.90. Patient's most common radiologic sign was air space consolidation (89.1%). The highest CT severity score was found in patients with stomach cancer (46.67+/-5.77). Conclusion(s): The mortality rate in this study was 24.1%. Based on the results of our study and previous research, special care should be provided to patients with solid tumors during the COVID-19 pandemic and in infected cases.Copyright © 2022, E-Century Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background: Since December 2019, the world is struggling with an outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection mostly represented as an acute respiratory distress syndrome and has turned into the most critical health issue worldwide. Limited information is available about the association between dynamic changes in the naso/oropharyngeal viral shedding in infected patients and biomarkers, aiming to be assessed in the current study. Materials and Methods: This quasi-cohort study was conducted on 31 patients with moderate severity of COVID-19 manifestations, whose real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA at baseline. RT-PCR was rechecked for patients every 3-4 days until achieving two negative ones. In parallel, biomarkers, including lymphocyte count, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and C-reactive protein (CRP), were assessed every other day, as well. Viral shedding also was assessed. Results: Spearman's correlation test revealed a significant direct correlation between the viral shedding from the symptom onset and the time, in which CRP (P = 0.0015, r = 0.54) and LDH (P = 0.001, r = 0.6207) return to normal levels after symptom onset, but not for lymphocyte count (P = 0.068, r = 0.34). Conclusion: Based on the current study's findings, the duration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding was directly correlated with the required time for LDH and CRP return to normal levels. Therefore, these factors can be considered the determinants for patients' discharge, isolation, and return to social activities;however, further investigations are required to generalize the outcomes.
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Introduction: The unrelenting storm of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since late 2019 has turned into a crucial health matter of the globe. There is increasing evidence in terms of a hypercoagulable state by this infection. Objectives: The current study aims to clarify the association between thromboembolic events in COVID-19 and the patient, the infection and in-hospital related characteristics. Patients and Methods: The current case-control study has been conducted on 243 COVID-19 pneumonia patients including 83 cases with thrombotic events and 160 controls without thrombosis. The thrombotic events included deep venous thrombosis (DVT) (n = 9), pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) (n = 48), acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (n = 17), cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) (n = 4) and arterial thrombosis (n = 5). On admission, hemodynamic parameters, on admission laboratory assessments, mobility during hospitalization, type of oxygenation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission requirement and duration of ICU and also hospital stay were recorded in the checklist. Results: According to logistic regression assessment, on admission O2 saturation (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99), hemoglobin level (OR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77-0.97) and albumin level (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.3-0.86) were independently correlated with thrombosis due to COVID-19. Other factors, including demographic, infection severity, laboratory and in-hospital characteristics, were not significantly associated with thrombotic events. Conclusion: Based on this study's findings, hemoglobin and albumin levels were the independent factors associated with the thrombotic events in COVID-19 patients.
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Aim: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Isfahan, Iran. Materials & methods: HCWs in COVID-19 wards of three referral COVID-19 hospitals in Isfahan were screened and tested for COVID-19 infection. Results: In total, 102 HCWs were screened whose median age was 43 years old. Moreover, 21 (20.5%) of them had a history of suspected infection with SARS-CoV2, mostly (66.6%) without any symptoms while six (28.5%) of them suffered from relatively mild diseases and one (4.7%) was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. Conclusion: It was found that HCWs were prone to be asymptomatic carriers while their computed tomography images were normal. Therefore, it is recommended that reverse-transcriptase real-time-PCR be essential for the diagnosis of infections.