Novelty in Biomedicine

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused viral pneumonia in Wuhan City in China in December of 2019. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) primarily targets the lungs with severe hypoxia, which usually results in death. COVID-19 is highly heterogeneous regarding severity, clinical phenotype, and more importantly, global dispersal. The respiratory system in all aspects such as respiratory airways, endothelium of pulmonary vessels, conducting airways, the alveoli, neuromuscular breathing structure, and pulmonary circulation are affected by this virus. A comprehensive concept of the source and dynamic action of the SARS-CoV-2 and the possible causes of heterogeneity in COVID-19 is required for predicting and managing the illness in acute and chronic stages of the pulmonary sign.

The identification and differentiation of the various genotypes of hepatitis viruses are of great importance and can contribute to both clinical procedures and scientific research. There is a wide range of typing methods, which can be mainly divided into phenotypic and genotypic methods. Here, we focused on the available genotyping methods for hepatitis virus typing and tried to review and categorize them. This study aimed to study various hepatitis virus genotyping methods. In this study, to obtain a comprehensive overview of hepatitis virus genotyping methods, a perfect search was performed using related keywords in major journals and databases. Information was extracted from articles, analyzed, categorized, and compared. In analyzing the various articles, genotyping methods were divided into three different categories: Sequencing methods, hybridization methods, and methods based on DNA binding patterns. Sequencing-based methods were cited as the gold standard and the accuracy of other methods was compared to them. Hybridization-based methods, which were also used in commercial kits, include several methods. DNA binding pattern-based methods were mainly based on PCR with genotype-specific primers or RFLP. Although molecular methods allow accurate, sensitive, and reproducible genotyping, there is still much room to be exploited using emerging methods.

Background: As observed in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Meddle-East respiratory syndrome (MERS) epidemics, pregnant women are more prone to complications and adverse outcomes of coronavirus infection. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is thought to significantly increase the risks to maternal and fetal health, while others believe that pregnant women have similar morbidity and mortality compared to the general population. Due to the severe prognosis of pregnant women with SARS-Coronavirus (CoV) or MERS-CoV, many concerns have been raised about the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on this sensitive group of patients.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional descriptive study that was performed on all pregnant women referred to Mahdieh Hospital in Tehran, Iran, whose gestation period was during the coronavirus epidemic, by the available sampling method. Pregnant women answered the questions asked by the researcher and the answers were recorded in a pre-prepared structured standard questionnaire. Questionnaire questions included basic information, knowledge, attitude, practice, and obstacles.
Results: A total of 284 people participated in this study with a mean age of 29.6 ± 12.2 years. The mean gestational age among the participants in this study was 28.5 ± 9.7 weeks. The knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant women referred to Mahdieh Hospital in Tehran were 74.05, 61.13, and 60.06, respectively. In terms of attitude, improving one's attitude towards herself will have the greatest effect on improving one's attitude. According to this finding, the attitude of individuals increases the level of knowledge about COVID-19. The amount of knowledge has a direct positive and significant effect on practice. Also, the attitude has a direct positive and significant effect on the practice.
Conclusion: Given that the source of information for most of the participants in this study about COVID-19 was the media. Transmission of correct health information about the relationship between pregnancy and COVID-19, to this sensitive group, through the media could be appropriate. This is important because most participants feel they are at higher risk of developing the disease than non-pregnant people due to their pregnancy status.

Background: The palpation method is commonly used to perform radial artery catheterization, but it has a high failure rate. We conducted this study to determine the efficacy of early ultrasound training in improving the success rate of first-year anesthesia residents in radial artery catheterization with palpation technique because the use of ultrasound can increase the success rate.
Materials and Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 320 patients underwent radial arterial catheterization in the first stage (training) and another 320 patients in the second stage (research) in two groups of residents who were trained by palpation or ultrasound guidance. The primary endpoint was the first-try success rate, and the secondary endpoints were the final success rate, time to achieve first and final success, hematoma incidence, and the number of attempts.
Results: The success rate of the first try in the ultrasound group was significantly higher (71.3%) compared to the palpation group (52.5%, P<0.001). The number of attempts, time to success on the first try, and overall succession were all higher in the palpation group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in overall success rate or hematoma formation (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Ultrasound training for first-year anesthesia residents improves the success rate of arterial catheterization via palpation.

Background: An incompatible blood transfusion may lead to hemolytic transfusion reactions and severe complications such as intravascular hemolysis, multiorgan failure, and even death. Prevention, early diagnosis, and treatments have the main roles to decrease transfusion complications.
Cases Report: We present a case of a 43-year-old woman with a history of mandibular malignancy and facial reconstruction surgery who needed to blood transfusion due to a hemorrhage around her tracheostomy, and inadvertently 2 units of incompatible blood were transfused. The errors conduce to this issue and consideration to prevent and manage incompatible blood transfusions are discussed.
Conclusion: This case showed that an effective technique for recognizing and avoiding transfusion mistakes is staff awareness of the potential errors at the bedside and in the laboratory. Furthermore, patients’ immunological status, early detection, and recognition of blood transfusion manifestation are critical factors for early diagnosis and treatment.