Incidence of Bell's palsy after coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the pooled incidence of Bell's palsy after COVID-19 vaccination. METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched by 2 independent researchers. We also searched the grey literature including references of the references and conference abstracts. We extracted data regarding the total number of participants, first author, publication year, the country of origin, sex, type of vaccines, and the number of patients who developed Bell's palsy after COVID-19 vaccination. RESULTS: The literature search revealed 370 articles, subsequently deleting duplicates 227 remained. After careful evaluation of the full texts, 20 articles remained for meta-analysis. The most commonly administered vaccines were Pfizer followed by Moderna. In total, 4.54e+07 individuals received vaccines against COVID-19, and 1739 cases developed Bell's palsy. In nine studies, controls (individuals without vaccination) were enrolled. The total number of controls was 1 809 069, of whom 203 developed Bell's palsy. The incidence of Bell's palsy after COVID-19 vaccines was ignorable. The odds of developing Bell's palsy after COVID-19 vaccines was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.79-1.32) (I2 = 74.8%, P < .001). CONCLUSION: The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis show that the incidence of peripheral facial palsy after COVID-19 vaccination is ignorable and vaccination does not increase the risk of developing Bell's palsy. Maybe, Bell's palsy is a presenting symptom of a more severe form of COVID-19, so clinicians must be aware of this.

Association of ideal cardiovascular health with carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in a young adult population.

Ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) is associated with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to investigate the association of CVH metrics with carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) as a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis in young adults. A cross-sectional study was performed on 1295 adults, average age of 29.7 ± 4.0 years, selected from the participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. The participants were divided into three groups based on the overall CVH score: ideal, intermediate, and poor CVH. Multivariate-adjusted linear regression was used to determine the association of the CVH score with cIMT. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for high cIMT (≥ 95% percentile). Also, the independent effects of each ideal CVH metric on cIMT were analyzed. The prevalence of ideal CVH was 6.4% in men and 12.4% in women, and mean cIMT was obtained 0.53 ± 0.09 mm in men and 0.57 ± 0.08 mm in women. A 1-point increase of the CVH score in men and women was associated with a cIMT decrease of 0.009 and 0.011 mm (men: Beta [SE] = - 0.009 [0.003]; women: - 0.011 [0.007], p < 0.001), rendering the ORs of 0.66 and 0.70 for having a high cIMT (≥ 95% percentile), respectively. Ideal blood pressure in both sexes and body mass index in women had significant inverse association with cIMT. There was an inverse graded association between the CVH score and cIMT among young adults, indicating that ideal CVH metrics were associated with better vascular health in this population.

Association of childhood metabolic syndrome and metabolic phenotypes with the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in early adulthood: Tehran lipid and glucose study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical significance of metabolic syndrome (MetS) during adolescence and its association with adulthood adverse outcomes is a controversial issue. This study aimed to investigate the association of MetS and metabolic phenotypes with a high carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in early adulthood. METHODS: MetS was defined as proposed by Cook, de Ferranti, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), and the pediatric International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Metabolic phenotypes were defined based on the binary clustering of cardiovascular risk factors. The participants were adolescent's individual selected from a large cohort study and followed for 18.2 years. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for a high CIMT incidence (≥95th percentile). RESULTS: In this study, 862 adolescents (52.3% males), with the mean age of 13.4 ± 2.2 years, were included. The presence of MetS, based on the definitions proposed by Cook (OR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.01-3.57, P = 0.046) and de Ferranti (OR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.04-2.90, P = 0.033), was associated with the increased risk of a high CIMT in early adulthood. Metabolic phenotypes, including high waist circumference (WC)/hypertension (HTN), high WC/low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and high triglyceride (TG)/high WC, showed higher risks of a high CIMT. However, these positive associations become insignificant after adjusting for the adulthood BMI, except for the high WC/low HDL-C phenotype (OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.02-4.11, P = 0.044). CONCLUSION: The high WC/low HDL-C phenotype had a better predictive value and could be used as a simpler alternative for MetS to identify adolescents with a higher risk of high CIMT during early adulthood.

Comparison of hepatic steatosis index as noninvasive diagnostic tool and liver ultrasound for non-alcoholic steatosis in the adult population.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate hepatic steatosis index (HSI) as a non-invasive tool in diagnosing and predicting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and to compare it with abdominal ultrasound as the gold standard tool. Background: NAFLD is a general term attributed to the deposition of adipose tissue in the liver leading to hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and also hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Rapid and valid screening can remarkably prevent the progression of this disease. Methods: A total of 464 people were included in the present study based on inclusion criteria. Patients were evaluated for body mass index (BMI), AST, ALT, and ALP indices. The liver echogenicity of patients was evaluated by abdominal ultrasound technique. Results: The results showed that out of 464 people included in the study, 32.33% represented fatty liver. It was found that 79.1% of patients were female. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age. Furthermore, it was found that ALT, AST, and ALP levels were significantly increased in the two groups of patients compared to the control group. It was determined that out of 150 patients, 75.3% were grade I and 24.7% were grade II NAFLD cases; no grade III cases were observed. The mean HSI for the NAFLD- group was 35.51±5.72 and for the NAFLD+ group was 42.84±5.70, a significant difference. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve also showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of HSI was 0.833 (95% CI, 0.796-0.870) for detecting NAFLD patients. At the cutoff point of > 36.0, the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) were 88.7% (95% CI, 82.5-92.5), 63.4% (95% CI, 57.9-68.5), 92.1%, and 53.6%, respectively. Pearson correlation showed a direct and significant correlation between ultrasound data and HSI values. Conclusion: Overall, the present study results showed that HSI as a non-invasive and non-imaging tool can diagnose NAFLD.

Comparison analysis of childhood body mass index cut-offs in predicting adulthood carotid intima media thickness: Tehran lipid and glucose study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescences have been increased, which can consequently increase the prevalence of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases later in life. The objective of this study is to compare the ability of different childhood body mass index cut-offs in prediction of carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) as an indicator of subclinical atherosclerosis. METHODS: Participants were categorized into normal weight, overweight and obesity group, based on world health organization (WHO), center for disease control and prevention (CDC), international obesity task force (IOTF) and local IOTF cut-offs. After 18 years of follow up CIMT was measured. Akaike's information criterion and relative efficiency were measured in order to compare regression models on the role of obesity on CIMT. RESULTS: In this prospective cohort study, 1295 subjects aged 3 to 18 years old were enrolled. The overall prevalence of overweight was 15.4, 11.5, 16.3 and 14.1 along with obesity prevalence of 6.6, 8.5, 7.7 and 5.0% based on WHO, CDC, local IOTF and international IOTF criteria, respectively. CIMT was higher in obese compare to normal groups across all classification criteria. After regression analysis, international IOTF was the best to predict adulthood CIMT, followed by local IOTF and WHO. CDC had the least discriminatory ability. CONCLUSION: Due to the results of this study, IOTF could be a better tool in national and international surveillances of children in order to define overweight and obesity, which can help us to intervene more effectively in reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases.

Predictive Factors Associated with Anterolateral Ligament Injury in the Patients with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear.

BACKGROUND: The earlier studies did not assess the associated factors of anterolateral ligament injury, comprehensively. We sought to evaluate the independent predictive factors of anterolateral ligament injury in the patients with anterior cruciate ligament tear. Ultrasound scan has an emerging role in the diagnosis of anterolateral ligament injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included 198 patients with anterior cruciate ligament tear in this study. All the patients underwent knee ultrasound scan to diagnose the anterolateral ligament injury. The potential predictive factors of anterolateral ligament injury were compared between the patients with anterolateral ligament injury and the patients with the intact anterolateral ligament. RESULTS: In all the patients, the anterolateral ligament was seen in the tibial and femoral portions using the ultrasound scan. One hundred and ten patients (55.6%) had anterolateral ligament injury and the anterolateral ligament was intact in 88 patients (44.4%). The lateral collateral ligament injury was significantly associated with the anterolateral ligament injury (p < 0.001). In addition, the iliotibial band injury had a significant relationship with the anterolateral ligament injury (p = 0.001). An increased lateral tibial slope was significantly associated with the anterolateral ligament injury (p = 0.031). Furthermore, the bone contusion of the lateral femoral condyle had a significant relationship with the anterolateral ligament injury (p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: The independent predictors of anterolateral ligament injury included the lateral collateral ligament injury, iliotibial band injury, bone contusion of the lateral femoral condyle, and an increased lateral tibial slope.