Erciyes Medical Journal最新文献

Background: Ongoing research on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has revealed that it is associated with serious damage to many organs, not only the lungs. This infection can also affect the cardiovascular system and lead to serious cardiac pathologies. In this article, we present a case of transient bradyarrhythmia in a patient who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and recovered spontaneously with treatment.

Case report: A 74-year-old male patient was hospitalized with symptomatic COVID-19 infection. At the time of hospitalization, the patient was asymptomatic from a cardiac standpoint, but was found to have sinoatrial exit block type 2-2, intermittent Mobitz type 2 atrioventricular block, and sinus bradycardia. The medical team decided to closely monitor the patient, who responded well to COVID-19 treatment and did not develop bradyarrhythmia as his symptoms improved.

Conclusion: Patients with COVID-19 infection should be closely monitored for bradyarrhythmia. Permanent pacemaker should not be rushed in these patients.

Objective: The term post-COVID (coronavirus disease) is used to refer to the presence of prolonged symptoms 12 weeks or more after the disease treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the presence of symptoms and anxiety in patients with COVID-19 who did not require inpatient care at the third and sixth months following symptom onset.

Materials and methods: The study is a prospective cohort study involving 471 university employees who contracted COVID-19 between October 2020 and October 2021. Data were obtained through the disease contact follow-up program implemented at the university and phone interviews conducted at the third and sixth months from symptom onset.

Results: The study group comprised 361 individuals at three months and 109 at six months from symptom onset. The study found that symptoms persisted in 116 (32.1%) people in the third month and in 47 (13.0%) people in the sixth month. The most common symptoms at three months were shortness of breath, fatigue, and fatigue, while fatigue, fatigue, and shortness of breath were the most common symptoms at six months.

Conclusion: Understanding the long-term effects of coronavirus will enhance the management of the disease. As a result, the follow-up of symptomatic COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 patients will become more systematic and effective.

Objective: This cross-sectional study evaluated the association between food addiction, dietary quality, and metabolic parameters and determined food addiction prevalence in overweight and obese adults.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted with 134 obese and overweight adults. Food addiction was evaluated with the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), and dietary quality was assessed with the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010). The HEI-2010 scores range from 0 to 100 (>80: good dietary quality, 51-80: needs improvement, <51: poor dietary quality).

Results: 19.4% of the participants had a food addiction. The ratio of those with poor dietary quality (61.5%) in participants with food addiction was higher than those without food addiction (52.8%) (p>0.05). The ratio of participants with high AST levels to participants with food addiction (34.6%) is higher than those without food addiction (17.6%) (p<0.05). Participants without food addiction have lower cholesterol intake than participants with food addiction (p<0.05). YFAS symptom scores were positively correlated with AST, SBP, and DBP levels and negatively correlated with the age of the participants (p<0.05).

Conclusion: It was founded that a relationship may exist between food addiction, dietary quality, and metabolic parameters of obese and overweight adults. Especially in treating obesity, it is essential to make appropriate interventions to increase dietary quality.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of tibialis posterior muscle (TP) fatigue on dynamic plantar pressure (DPP) characteristics during different walking speeds.

Materials and methods: Thirty healthy volunteers walked at normal and fast paces in three trials. The Footscan^®3D system was used to obtain the distribution of dynamic plantar pressure before and after the TP fatigue protocol. The study measured the peak pressure (PP) of the hallux, toes 2-5, metatarsals (Meta 1-5), midfoot (MF), medial heel (MH) and lateral heel (LH), as well as the percentage of contact area (CA%) of the forefoot (FF), MF and hindfoot (HF), foot progression angle (FPA) and the minimum and maximum values of the subtalar angle.

Results: The results showed significant differences in the PP of Meta 4, MH and MF at a normal pace after the tibialis posterior muscle fatigue protocol. At a fast pace, significant differences were found in the PP of the MF and CA% of FF and MF. Before the fatigue protocol, there were significantly different values in the peak pressure of the hallux, toes 2-5 and MH between the two walking speeds. After the fatigue protocol, there were significantly different values in the peak pressure of toes 2-5, MH and LH between the two walking speeds. The study also found a significant difference in FPA between the two walking speeds (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The study provides evidence that TP fatigue may lead to injuries during long-term walking or sports activities. These results highlight the importance of endurance training and minimizing its negative effects on foot biomechanics by reducing fatigue.

Objective: In some cases, it may be challenging to differentiate radiologically between ischemic gliotic foci and multiple sclerosis (MS) plaques. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of histogram analysis in the differentiation of MS plaque and ischemic gliosis lesions on the T2-weighted (T2WI) FLAIR sequence.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted on the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examinations of patients diagnosed with ischemic gliosis and multiple sclerosis. Inactive lesions of 43 patients with ischemic gliosis and 46 with multiple sclerosis imaged by the same device were included in the study. Histogram analysis parameters of both groups were calculated. The entire image analysis algorithm was obtained through in-house software coded in MATLAB. Both groups were compared using a student's t-test. The diagnostic value of the parameters was detected with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results: Mean gray level intensity, the standard deviation of the histogram, and entropy values calculated via minimum, maximum and median values were significantly higher in patients with ischemic gliosis. ROC curve analysis indicated that a threshold value of 545.19 for mean gray level intensity has 69.8% specificity and 69.6% sensitivity.

Conclusion: Histogram analysis may help differentiate MS and ischemic gliosis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of percutaneous tracheotomy on mortality and length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Materials and methods: This study included patients with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19-associated) acute respiratory distress syndrome who were treated with invasive mechanical ventilation in a pandemic intensive care unit. Patients admitted to the pandemic intensive care unit between March and July 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who underwent percutaneous tracheotomy and did not have a tracheotomy during the follow-up were statistically compared in terms of laboratory and clinical characteristics such as mortality and length of stay in the intensive care unit.

Results: The study included 102 orotracheally intubated patients diagnosed with COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome. The number of tracheotomized and not-tracheotomized patients was 34 and 68, respectively. The mean age of the patients was 60.39±14.10 years. The mean time to perform percutaneous tracheotomy was 7.94±6.11 days. There was no significant difference in mortality rate between the two groups (p=0.298). However, patients who underwent tracheotomy had a longer length of stay in the intensive care unit compared to those who did not (35.00±24.60 days vs 13.20±11.69 days, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Our study found no statistically significant difference in mortality rate between the two groups in our study. Additionally, the length of stay in the intensive care unit was not better in tracheotomized patients. While tracheotomy has some advantages in other severe lung diseases, its effect on mortality in patients with severe lung disease associated with COVID-19 should be evaluated further in randomized controlled trials.