Cytomegalovirus gastritis in a patient with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection: A case report and literature review.

In this study, we reported a previously immunocompetent patient who developed cytomegalovirus-induced gastric ulcers after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. A 33-year-old man was referred to our center with complaints of persistent dysphagia and odynophagia, and epigastric pain and discomfort after ingesting solids or liquids, a few days after his hospital discharge following admission to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Endoscopy revealed inflammation and a whitish exudate in the esophagus, and multiple large active ulcers in the stomach. Histopathological and immunohistochemical findings were strongly suggestive of cytomegalovirus infection.

COVID-19 prognostic modeling using CT radiomic features and machine learning algorithms: Analysis of a multi-institutional dataset of 14,339 patients.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to analyze the prognostic power of CT-based radiomics models using data of 14,339 COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Whole lung segmentations were performed automatically using a deep learning-based model to extract 107 intensity and texture radiomics features. We used four feature selection algorithms and seven classifiers. We evaluated the models using ten different splitting and cross-validation strategies, including non-harmonized and ComBat-harmonized datasets. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were reported. RESULTS: In the test dataset (4,301) consisting of CT and/or RT-PCR positive cases, AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.83 ± 0.01 (CI95%: 0.81-0.85), 0.81, and 0.72, respectively, were obtained by ANOVA feature selector + Random Forest (RF) classifier. Similar results were achieved in RT-PCR-only positive test sets (3,644). In ComBat harmonized dataset, Relief feature selector + RF classifier resulted in the highest performance of AUC, reaching 0.83 ± 0.01 (CI95%: 0.81-0.85), with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.77 and 0.74, respectively. ComBat harmonization did not depict statistically significant improvement compared to a non-harmonized dataset. In leave-one-center-out, the combination of ANOVA feature selector and RF classifier resulted in the highest performance. CONCLUSION: Lung CT radiomics features can be used for robust prognostic modeling of COVID-19. The predictive power of the proposed CT radiomics model is more reliable when using a large multicentric heterogeneous dataset, and may be used prospectively in clinical setting to manage COVID-19 patients.

Correction: Effectiveness of Polypill for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (PolyPars): Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

This corrects the article "Effectiveness of polypill for prevention of cardiovascular disease (PolyPars): protocol of a randomized controlled trial" published on 2020: Volume 23, Issue 08, Pages 548-556. Correction to: Arch Iran Med. 2020;23(8):548-556. doi: 10.34172/aim.2020.58. In the original version of this article, the recruitment period was wrongly reported to last from December 2014 to December 2015 in abstract and methods sections of the article. This is corrected into "from December 2015 to December 2016" in the PDF and HTML versions of the article. Also the "PolyIran" is changed to "PolyPars" in the last paragraph of the discussion section in the PDF and HTML versions of the article.

Effectiveness of Polypill for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (PolyPars): Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death in Iran. A fixed-dose combination therapy (polypill) was proposed as a cost-effective strategy for CVD prevention, especially in lower-resource settings. We conducted the PolyPars trial to assess the effectiveness and safety of polypill for prevention of CVD. METHODS: The PolyPars trial is a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial nested within the Pars Cohort Study. Participants were randomized to an intervention arm and a control arm. Participants in the control arm received minimal non-pharmacological care, while those in the intervention arm received polypill in addition to minimal care. The polypill comprises hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg, aspirin 81 mg, atorvastatin 20 mg, and either enalapril 5 mg or valsartan 40 mg. The primary outcome of the study is defined as the first occurrence of acute coronary syndrome (non-fatal myocardial infarction and unstable angina), fatal myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, new-onset heart failure, coronary artery revascularization procedures, transient ischemic attack, cerebrovascular accidents (fatal or non-fatal), and hospitalization due to any of the mentioned conditions. The secondary outcomes of the study include adverse events, compliance, non-cardiovascular mortality, changes in blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and lipids after five years of follow-up. RESULTS: From December 2014 to December 2015, 4415 participants (91 clusters) were recruited. Of those, 2200 were in the polypill arm and 2215 in the minimal care arm. The study is ongoing. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT03459560. CONCLUSION: Polypill may be effective for primary prevention of CVDs in developing countries.

Evaluation of the Prevalence of Temporomandibular Joint Involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders.

OBJECTIVES: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, known as TMDs, are significant public health problems and may result in pain and disability. In order to determine the prevalence of clinical/subjective TMD in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we used the research diagnostic criteria (RDC)/TMD axes. We assessed the anti-cyclic citrullinated protein (anti-CCP)-related TMD in RA for the first time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two RA patients were compared to 47 healthy controls with regard to complete blood count (CBC), serology, acute phase reactants (APR), and TMJ dysfunction. RESULTS: The anti-CCP antibody showed a significant correlation with the development of clinical TMD (P=0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI)=12.4%-35.6%). A prevalence of 50% was calculated through the RDC/TMD for such disorders. In RA patients, statistically significant differences were observed between the groups with and without clinical TMD regarding psychological depression and physical symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results, a significant correlation was found between the anti-CCP antibody and TMD. Therefore, when this antibody is detected in the blood serum, the treatment must be initiated. The RDC/TMD used in this study assessed the prevalence of TMJ dysfunction in conformity with RA-associated TMJ findings previously obtained through other conventional methods.

Pars cohort study of non-communicable diseases in Iran: protocol and preliminary results.

OBJECTIVES: The pars cohort study (PCS) is a 10-year cohort study aiming to investigate the burden and the major risk factors of non-communicable diseases, and to establish a setting to launch interventions for prevention of these diseases and controlling their risk factors. METHODS: All inhabitants of Valashahr district in South of Iran, aged 40-75 years, were invited to undergo interviews and physical examination, and to provide biological samples. A total of 9264 invitees accepted to participate in the study (95 % participation rate) and were recruited from 2012 to 2014. Active follow-up was also carried out after 12 months. RESULTS: About 46 % of participants were male and 54 % were female. About 14.0 % of the participants were current smokers and 8.4 % were ever opium users. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 37.3 and 18.2 %, respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 26.9 %. A total of 49 participants died during a median follow-up of one year. CONCLUSIONS: PCS with its large scale and wealth of socio-economic and medical data can be a unique platform for studying the etiology of non-communicable diseases and effective interventions in Iran.