COVID-19 outcomes in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Aim of this study is to investigate COVID-19 outcomes in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). METHODS: A retrospective cohort was formed from APS patients. Patients were screened for a record of positive SARS-CoV 2 PCR. In PCR­positive patients, clinical data and information regarding COVID-19 outcomes were collected from medical records. RESULTS: A positive PCR test was detected in 9/53 APS patients, while 66.7 %, 33.3 % and 11.1 % of APS patients with COVID-19 were under hydroxychloroquine, LMWH or warfarin, and acetylsalicylic acid, respectively. There were 3/9 patients found to be hospitalized and one died. No new thrombotic event was reported in any of the patients during COVID-19 infection. CONCLUSION: Baseline use of hydroxychloroquine, antiaggregants and anticoagulants may be associated with an absence of new thrombotic event (Tab. 2, Ref. 33).

Nine-year Follow-up of a Patient with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Paget-Schroetter Syndrome.

Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is a challenging clinical condition with regards to its diagnosis and treatment. Its management may turn out to be challenging a case when an adverse complication such as Paget-Schroetter syndrome (PSS) also co-exists. Herein, we report a nine-year follow-up of a patient with TOS (a 41-year old cardiovascular surgeon) who had suffered multiple PSS episodes and repeat TOS surgeries. In essence, we want to highlight the diverse clinical indings of TOS and discuss its management in light of the relevant literature.

Effect of supervision on ultrasonographic measurements. A blinded randomized cross-over study.

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal ultrasound is becoming an increasingly popular clinical tool in the hands of physiatrists. Herewith, although the role of direct supervision (by an expert) is universally recognized as the core element for appropriate ultrasound training, to our best notice, its impact on ultrasonographic measurements has not been studied quantitatively in the hitherto literature. AIM: To quantify the effect of supervision in the early period of musculoskeletal ultrasound training by using three different tissues (muscle-cartilage-tendon) as models. DESIGN: A blinded randomized cross-over study. SETTING: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department of a University Hospital. POPULATION: A total of 9 sonographers (8 novice and 1 expert) were involved whereby the novice sonographers were randomly divided into two groups; Group A (N.=4) and Group B (N.=4). METHODS: All sonographers performed three thickness measurements; medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle, patellar tendon and femoral cartilage on the left lower limb of the same subject. The expert supervised Group A in the first half of the study (9 days), and Group B in the second half (9 days). Throughout the study period, all the participants were blinded to the data. Relative effectiveness, expert effect, order effect, treatment-period effect were studied for cross-over variance analysis. RESULTS: For all the three sites, measurements under the supervision of the expert were significantly different than those without him -p values pertaining to relative effectiveness, expert effect were 0.014, 0.013 for femoral cartilage; <0.001, <0.001 for gastrocnemius and <0.001, <0.001 for patellar tendon, respectively). For gastrocnemius muscle measurements, studying with the expert in the second half of the study (vs in the first half) was better concerning the precision of the measurements (order effect P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Supervision during measurements of novice sonographers is crucial and their data should otherwise be interpreted attentively.