Evaluation of knowledge and attitude of parents of asthmatic children on the seasonal flu vaccine Astımlı çocukların ebeveynlerinin mevsimsel grip aşısı ile ilgili bilgi ve tutumlarının değerlendirilmesi

Objective: Flu is a respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Because of their high risk of serious flu complications, asthma patients are recom-mended to receive seasonal flu vaccine every year. However, it is observed that the vaccination rates in this group vary from society to society and are generally low. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of parents of asthmatic children about seasonal flu vaccine. Material and Methods: Parents of children with asthma between the ages of 3 and 18 who applied to our hospital’s Pediatric Allergy Clinic between November 2019 and February 2020 and followed up for at least 6 months with a diagnosis of asthma were included in the study. Participants were asked to answer a questionnaire containing the demographic information about their families and their knowledge and attitudes about the seasonal flu vaccine. Results: Parents of 128 children with asthma were included in the study, 81.3% of the questionnaires were answered by mothers and 59.4% of the patients were male. While 57.8% of the parents stated that they had any knowledge about the flu vaccine, 47.6% knew that patients with asthma were at high risk for flu and 23.4% knew that the vaccine was free for these patients. The most frequent sources of information were doctors (59.5%), radio-TV programs (24.3%) and the internet (21.6%). At least once vaccination rate lifetime in asthmatic children and parents were 31% and 5%, respectively. While the most common reasons for vaccination were doctor’s recommendation (75%) and being at high illness risk (35%), the most common reasons for not being vaccinated were not having enough information about the vaccine (36.1%) and being afraid of vaccine side effects (32.1%). Patients were grouped as those who had the seasonal flu vaccine at any time and those who did not. It was observed that in the vaccinated group the follow-up period was longer, the rates of having any knowledge about the flu vaccine, knowing that flu has a high complication risk in asthmatics and the vaccine is free for asthmatics were higher compared to not vaccinated (p< 0.001 for all). While the majority of those who said that they received information from the doctor were among those vaccinated (p< 0.001), it was more common for those who were not vaccinated to obtain information from the internet (p= 0.004). Conclusion: It has been observed that the rate of flu vaccination is low in children with asthma. It was noted that the vaccination rate was higher if the information was obtained from the doctors, and the follow-up period was longer in the vaccinated patients. For this reason, it is thought that physicians informing parents at every control and especially before the flu season will increase the rates of getting flu vaccines in children with asthma

Evaluation of ischemia-modified albumin in the diagnosis and the clinical severity of COVID-19 in children

Background. There is no specific biomarker used in the diagnosis of COVID-19 and predicting its clinical severity. This study aimed to investigate the utility of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) in diagnosing and predicting clinical severity in children with COVID-19. Methods. Between October 2020 and March 2021, 41 cases constituted the COVID-19 group and 41 cases constituted the healthy control group. IMA levels were measured at admission (IMA-1) and 48-72 hours (IMA-2) in the COVID-19 group. In the control group, it was measured at admission. COVID-19 clinical severity was classified as asymptomatic infection, mild, moderate, severe, or critical disease. Patients were divided into two groups (asymptomatic/mild and moderate/severe) to evaluate IMA levels in terms of clinical severity. Results. In the COVID-19 group, the mean IMA-1 level was 0.901±0.099, and the mean IMA-2 level was 0.866±0.090. The mean level of IMA-1 in the control group was 0.787±0.051. When IMA-1 levels of COVID-19 and control cases were compared, the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). When clinical severity and laboratory data are compared, C-reactive protein, ferritin and ischemia-modified albumin ratio (IMAR) were statistically significantly higher in moderate-severe clinical cases (p=0.034, p=0.034, p=0.037 respectively). However, IMA-1 and IMA-2 levels were similar between the groups (p=0.134, p=0.922, respectively). Conclusions. To date, no study has been conducted on IMA levels in children with COVID-19. The IMA level may be a new marker for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in children. Studies with a larger number of cases are needed to predict clinical severity

Turkish Thoracic Society early career members task force group's virtual congress notes: European Respiratory Society International Congress 2020

In this article, Early Career Task Force Group members of the Turkish Thoracic Society summarize the European Respiratory Society 2020 virtual congress. Current developments in the field of respiratory diseases were compiled with the addition of sessions specific to coronavirus disease 2019 this year. Almost all of the congress sessions were examined, and the important and striking results of the congress were highlighted. Congress sessions were attended by expert researchers, and the prominent messages of each session were highlighted in short summaries. They were then grouped under relevant titles and ranked in order of meaning and relation. It was finalized by a team of researchersTurkish Thoracic Society (TTS