dadkhoda sofi

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a type of obstructive pulmonary disease that is identified by chronic narrowing of the airways. This disease worsens over time, and the main symptoms of this disease include shortness of breath, cough, and phlegm. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between COPD disease severity and inflammatory markers erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in hospitalized patients.

After the admission of patients diagnosed with COPD into this descriptive-analytical study, a complete medical history was taken during their hospitalization. Necessary variables were collected, including current or previous cigarette or opium use and duration of exposure to fossil fuels. Especially in those who cook at home, ESR and CRP samples were taken from them in addition to routine tests, and the length of hospital stay was recorded in addition to common treatments. After collecting the data, they were recorded in SPSS V22 software and analyzed using descriptive statistics (prevalence, mean, and standard deviation) and using the Chi-square, Fisher's exact, independent t, and Mann-Whitney tests. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the accuracy of the prediction of inflammatory markers in the outcome and severity of the disease. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

In this study, it was observed that the average scores of ESR and CRP of people with COPD were 54.68 and 1.50, respectively. The average ESR was 26.46 in people with mild COPD, 54.60 in people with moderate COPD, and 110.62 in people with severe COPD, and this difference was statistically significant (P=0.0001). The average CRP was 0.61 in people with mild COPD, 1.75 in people with moderate COPD, and 2.86 in people with severe COPD, which was statistically significant (P=0.0001).

The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between ESR and CRP with the outcome of COPD, and a significant relationship was observed between ESR and CRP and the severity of COPD disease.

Various factors, including environmental influences, may contribute to the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS). Khuzestan province is notable for being one of the hottest and most dust-storm-affected regions in the Middle East.

This ecological study aimed to examine the relationship between exposure to dusty days, temperature, and wind speed and the prevalence of MS in cities across Khuzestan province, southern Iran.

This ecological research was conducted in 2019 in Khuzestan province and utilized available data on MS prevalence, dusty days, temperature, and wind speed. The data were obtained from the Khuzestan MS Center database, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Meteorological Organization of Khuzestan province. A multi-pollutant generalized additive model (GAM) was applied to evaluate the relationship between the independent variables and MS prevalence. Data analysis was performed using R software version 3.4.3.

The average age of the patients was 31.40 ± 8.94 years, with a female-to-male sex ratio of 3.05. In 2019, the average annual prevalence of MS across the 27 counties in Khuzestan province was 42 per 100,000 people. The GAM analysis identified a significant positive association between dusty days and MS prevalence [relative risk (RR) = 1.113, 95% CI: 1.090 - 1.137, P < 0.001] and a significant negative association between average wind speed and MS prevalence (RR = 0.999, 95% CI: 0.9990 - 0.9997, P < 0.001).

The findings suggest that an increase in dusty days is linked to higher MS prevalence, whereas higher average wind speeds are associated with lower MS prevalence. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of environmental factors in the prevalence of MS and its management.