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Introduction: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was extended to the entire population in China and around the world, and its mortality rate was about 3.4%. The impact of laser therapy on chronic respiratory diseases has been shown in previous studies. This study was aimed at examining the effects of laser acupuncture (LA) on patients with severe COVID-19. Methods: In the present study, 60 patients with a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test were assigned to the intervention and control groups (30 patients in each group). The intervention group was treated with LA, that is, laser light with low energy on acupuncture points, once a day for five consecutive days. Results: The participants' mean age in the intervention and control groups was 48.96 ± 12.65 and 53.16 ± 12.28 respectively;70% of the patients were male and 30% of them were female. IL6 had a significant reduction in the intervention group (P value = 0.038) in comparison with the control group (P value = 0.535). Furthermore, the mean admission time in the control group was significantly higher than that in the intervention group (P value = 0.047). However, the mortality rate in the intervention group was zero, but three patients in the control group died. Conclusion: Our study showed that LA can be used as supportive therapy for routine treatment in patients with severe COVID-19. Moreover, due to LA safety and it's low cost, it could be recommended as an adjuvant to conventional therapy in patients interested in treating their disease with such a method © 2023, Journal of Lasers in Medical Sciences.All Rights Reserved.
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While different crowdsourcing platforms promote remote data collection, experiments in the immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) research community are predominantly performed in person. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has forced researchers in different disciplines, including iVR, to seriously consider remote studies. In this paper, we present a remote study using the Immersive Virtual Alimentation and Nutrition (IVAN) application, designed to educate users about food-energy density and portion size control. We report on the results of a remote experiment with 45 users using the IVAN app. In IVAN, users actively construct knowledge about energy density by manipulating virtual food items, and explore the concept of portion size control through hypothesis testing and assembling virtual meals in iVR. To explore the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using an interactive health-related application for nutrition education, two conditions were devised (interactive vs. passive). The results demonstrate the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using health-related applications. Furthermore, the results also indicate that regardless of level of interactivity learners significantly improved their knowledge about portion size control after using the IVAN (p < 0.0001). Adding interactivity, however, suggests that the perceived learning experience of users could be partially affected. Learners reported significantly higher scores for immediacy of control in the interactive condition compared to those in the passive condition (p < 0.05). This study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting an unsupervised remote iVR experiment using a complex and interactive health-related iVR app. Copyright © 2022 Sajjadi, Edwards, Zhao, Fatemi, Long, Klippel and Masterson.
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Background: Malignancy is a known risk factor of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severe involvement. Information about this infection in patients with cancer is limited. Objectives: This study aimed at reporting the clinical and imaging characteristics of COVID-19 infection in patients with cancer.
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Introduction: Following the widespread pandemic of the novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), this study has reported demographic and laboratory findings and clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 admitted to a tertiary educational hospital in 99 days in Iran. Objective: We aimed to investigate in-hospital death risk factors including underlying diseases and describe the signs, symptoms, and demographic features of COVID-19 patients. Methods: All confirmed COVID-19 cases admitted from 22 February to 30 May 2020 were extracted from hospital records. A follow-up telephone survey was conducted 30 days after discharge to acquire additional data such as survival status. Distribution of demographic and clinical characteristics was presented based on survival status during hospitalization. All analyses were performed using STATA version 14 with a level of significance below 5%. Results: Among 1083 recorded patients, the rate of survival and death was 89.2% (n=966) and 10.8% (n=117), respectively. 62% of the cases (n=671) were male. The mean recovery time was 1.90 (3.4) days in survived cases, which was significantly lower than that in deceased cases 4.5 (5.2) days, p<0.001). A significantly higher rate of death was observed among patients above the age of 60 years (24.8%, p<0.001), cases with hypertension (25.4%, P<0.001) and cases without cough ( 17 %, p=0.002) but with shortness of breath (16.5%, p=0.001). Conclusions: Our study emphasized the significant effect of different underlying conditions as mortality factors among COVID-19 patients, namely older age spectrum, hypertension, and ischemic heart disease. By acknowledging the epidemiologic pattern and mortality factors, we have more tools to prioritize and make better judgments, and more lives can be saved.