Hamid Reza Aghaei Meybodi; Seyedeh Zahra Fotook Kiaee; Marjan Akhavan; Samira Abbasloo; Mahnaz Pejman Sani
Abstract
Background: The world is still witnessing a largely ongoing spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); therefore, the scientific findings in this area need to be shared promptly.Objectives: This study aimed to assess the usefulness of Atorvastatin treatment in reducing COVID-19 mortality in patients ...
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Background: The world is still witnessing a largely ongoing spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); therefore, the scientific findings in this area need to be shared promptly.Objectives: This study aimed to assess the usefulness of Atorvastatin treatment in reducing COVID-19 mortality in patients with or without diabetes mellitus (DM) and to correlate them with C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.Methods: This study consecutively enrolled patients with pneumonia symptoms, positive lung CT scan, and confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The outcome was defined as intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death. Clinical data and history of atorvastatin administration were evaluated. CRP levels were measured at baseline and repeated after one week in all patients.Results: A total of 200 patients were included. Their mean age was 60.5 (SD = 16.5) years, 113 (56.5%) patients were male, 47 (23.5%) with pre-existing diabetes, and 64 (32%) patients were taking atorvastatin routinely. 68 (34%) required ICU admission of all the studied patients. No gender differences were found in ICU admission and death. The baseline CRP was not significantly different, but the secondary CRP was significantly different between DM and non-DM groups. Secondary CRP also showed a significant reduction in patients receiving atorvastatin (P = 0.017). The mortality was the same in atorvastatin or non-atorvastatin groups (P = 0.715).Conclusion: It seems that taking statin has only some beneficial effects on improving CRP levels in patients with COVID-19. To achieve a reliable result, clinical trials are recommended.
Farshid Rahimibashar; Mahmood Salesi; Amir Vahedian-Azimi; Masoum Khosh Fetrat
Abstract
Background: The study of neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) in the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has provided conflicting results in terms of their effect on mortality.Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate mortality in ARDS patients who underwent NMBA.Methods: ...
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Background: The study of neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) in the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has provided conflicting results in terms of their effect on mortality.Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate mortality in ARDS patients who underwent NMBA.Methods: A retrospective secondary analysis of 4200 patients with ARDS was collected from two academic medical centers, Tehran, Iran. This study was performed to assess the impact of NMBAs use in ARDS patients with different subgroups including mild and moderate-to-severe ARDS, age more and less than 65 years, having medical turnover vs. not-having, and high acute nursing care vs. moderate to low nursing care.Results: Intensive care unit (ICU) mortality has occurred in 1169 (27.8%) participants. The mortality rate was 28.6% and 27.5% in patients with mild and moderate-to-severe ARDS, respectively. In the subjects without medical turnover, the moderate dose of NMBAs significantly reduces the mortality of patients (P = 0.044). In patients who need high acute nursing care, increasing the NMBAs dose significantly reduces patients’ mortality (P = 0.010). In addition, increasing the NMBAs doses significantly reduces ICU length of stay (LOS).Conclusion: This study provides evidence that the administration of different doses of NMBAs had no effect on patients’ mortality with mild or moderate-to-severe ARDS. However, higher doses of NMBAs than low doses increased the risk of mortality in patients over 80 years and can reduce the risk of death in patients less than 55 years.
Farshid Rahimibashar; Mahmood Salesi; Amir Vahedian-Azimi; Masoum Khosh Fetrat
Abstract
Background: Sepsis is a very common serious medical condition among patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) that increases with age and ICU length of stay (LOS). Objectives: The primary goal of this study was to estimate the mortality rate due to sepsis among adult patients admitted to the ...
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Background: Sepsis is a very common serious medical condition among patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) that increases with age and ICU length of stay (LOS). Objectives: The primary goal of this study was to estimate the mortality rate due to sepsis among adult patients admitted to the mixed medical–surgical ICUs for a long time. The secondary goal was to identify factors associated with predicting ICU mortality in individuals with long-term ICU LOS. Methods: Adult patients admitted to the medical ICU for a long time (≥75 days) were included in this retrospective secondary analysis study. Baseline demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were recorded upon inclusion in the study. Results: ICU mortality occurred in 78 (43.1%) patients, out of 188 participants. A greater portion of patients with sepsis at admission (62.7%) were observed in the death group (59.2% vs. 30.8%, P < 0.001), than the survivor group. Additionally, survived patients differed significantly in terms of age, family engagement, baseline cognitive impairment, activity, nurse anticipated turnover scale (ATS), duration of a mechanical ventilator (MV), and ICU LOS. The results of multivariate binary logistic regression showed that the older age and low family intervention can increase the risk of mortality in patients with sepsis at the time of admission, with a long ICU LOS. Conclusion: Our findings are crucially important to increase the awareness of the impact of sepsis, highlight the need for continued research into potential preventive and therapeutic interventions, and help guide resource allocation.
Azadeh Farjami; Sezaneh Haghpanah; Peyman Arasteh; Rezvan Ardeshiri; Hakimeh Tavoosi; Zohre Zahedi; Shirin Parand; Mehran Karimi
Abstract
Background: Data on the frequency of hereditary bleeding disorders (HBDs) and associated mortality and morbidities during a long-term follow-up from Iran are scarce. Objective: This study evaluated the epidemiologic features among patients with HBD in one of the largest referral centers in southern Iran. ...
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Background: Data on the frequency of hereditary bleeding disorders (HBDs) and associated mortality and morbidities during a long-term follow-up from Iran are scarce. Objective: This study evaluated the epidemiologic features among patients with HBD in one of the largest referral centers in southern Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 619 patients with HBD were evaluated during the period 1996 to 2011. Aside from baseline characteristics and type of factor deficiency, associated morbidities including viral infections, neurological disorders, asthma, thalassemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac and renal diseases were evaluated. Furthermore, among patients who died, the underlying disease and etiology of death were also evaluated. Results: Patients’ mean age was 24.4 ± 13.5 years. Factor VIII deficiency was the most prevalent type (50.4%) of HBD, and combined Von–Willebrand and factor XIII deficiency (2.3%) was the most prevalent type of combined factor deficiency. A total of 0.5% had hepatitis B and 11.5% had hepatitis C. Cardiac disease was seen in 1.5%, hypertension in 0.2%, renal disease in 0.2%, and diabetes in 1.3% of patients. Overall, 5.2% had intracranial hemorrhage, 2.1% had epilepsy, and 0.8% had mental retardation. During the 15-year follow-up, 22 patients died; car accident was the leading cause of death in this population. Conclusion: Associated morbidities were seen in 24.3% of patients with HBD. Most prevalent morbidities were HCV infections (11.5%) and neurological disease (7.3%). The mortality rate among patients with HBD was 3.4%, and the most common cause of death was accident, which is similar to that of normal Iranian populations.
Amir Hossain Mirhashemi; Mohammad Hossain Kalantar Motamedi; Sedigheh Mirhashemi; Hamidreza Taghipour; Zahra Danial