zoubin souri

Brain atrophy is a common finding in older people. However, in some cases, brain atrophy is not proportional to the patient’s age. Recently, there has been much focus on the neurotoxicity of anesthetic drugs. 

This study was planned to investigate whether exposure to anesthesia accelerates the process of brain atrophy.

This case-control study was conducted in two academic hospitals affiliated with Guilan University of Medical Sciences (GUMS), Rasht City, Iran, from May 2024 to August 2024. Patients with early brain atrophy were included as the case group, and those who did not have early brain atrophy as the control group; 27 people in each group were studied. A checklist containing demographic data, history of receiving anesthesia, age of receiving anesthesia, and number of times receiving anesthesia was completed and the obtained data were compared between the two groups.

Regarding demographic data, no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P>0.05). Although early brain atrophy was more common in older people (62.59±8 vs 58±10.5 years), the difference was not significant (P=0.069). Two groups were also compared in terms of diabetes (P=0.054), hypertension (P=0.248), stroke (P=0.34), alcohol consumption and addiction (P=0.552). Regarding the history of receiving general anesthesia as the main variable of the study, the difference between the two groups was not significant (P=0.78).

The results of this study did not show a significant association between receiving general anesthesia and early brain atrophy. However, given the remarkable limitations of this study and the valid evidence, well-planned future studies are welcome.

To evaluate the spiral chest computed tomography (CT) scan findings in patients with multipletrauma during the COVID-19 pandemic. This retrospective study was performed on multiple trauma patients admitted to a tertiary hospital inthe north of Iran in 2020. All patients with multiple trauma who had undergone a chest spiral CT were includedin this study. Furthermore, the data analysis was performed through descriptive and analytical statistics usingSPSS software. A total of 600 patients were included over the study period. The mean age of patients was 48.2±20.3years. Of the total, 496 (65.3%) patients had blunt chest injuries, and 104 (34.7%) had penetrating chest injuries.Falling was the most common mechanical cause of chest trauma in 270 patients (45%). Surgical interventionswere performed in 110 (18.3%) patients. A total of 276 (46%) patients had chest injuries identified by CTscans. Many patients (15.6%) had ground-glass lung opacity in the CT scan reports. Lung consolidation,pneumothorax, lung contusion, hemothorax, and rib fractures were the most common. Due to the high frequency of typical findings in spiral CT scan examinations, obtaining a reliablehistory of trauma severity, injury mechanism, and a detailed physical examination is recommended beforeprescribing a CT scan for patients.

APACHE scoring systems are performed to predict the mortality rate of patients admitted to the hospitalchr('39')s intensive care unit (ICU). At present, APACHE II, III and VI are used in ICUs of Iranian hospitals. Due to the high mortality rate in the ICU, compared to other parts of the hospital and the use of APACHE systems in predicting the mortality rate, determining the best predictor is very important. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the best system for predicting the mortality of patients admitted to the ICU.

An electronic search in SID, Magiran, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar databases was performed until November 2019 using keywords. The list of key study sources was also reviewed to find studies that may not have been found through electronic search. The quality of studies was assessed with STROBE checklist. Data analysis was performed using CMA software version 2.

21 studies involving 3576 patients were meta-analyzed. 14 studies used the APACHE II, three studied used Apache III, and four studied used Apache IV. The meta-analyses found that the final estimate of the accuracy of the APACHE II in predicting mortality was 0.052 (CI = 0.030; 0.091), APACHE III 0.09 (CI = 0.029; 0.245), and APACHE IV 0.088 (C.I = 0.031; 0.228).

The findings of this study showed that the APACHE III had more accuracy in predicting the mortality rate of patients admitted to the ICU compared to APACHE II and IV. The ward has special care. It is recommended that this scoring system be used in hospitals to prioritize patients admitted to the ICU.