Postoperative Care in Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery: A Brief Study on Expert Opinions

Background: An operation called functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) can improve symptoms with success rates ranging from 67% to 98%. However, post-FESS management is still uncertain, and this expert opinion provides guidelines for managing patients after the surgery. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate postoperative care in functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Methods: In the current descriptive cross-sectional study, a questionnaire consisting of 25 questions about pre- and post-FESS considerations in terms of medications, imaging and the follow-up period was designed and 40 expert rhinologists in this field responded to the questions. Results: Post-operative antibiotics, pre-and post-operative corticosteroids especially in the form of nasal spray, corticosteroid-soaked Gelfoam, saline irrigation in large volumes, and nasal debridement after surgery were recommended by the majority of the surveyed experts. Post-operative imaging was suggested if any adverse event is suspected. Furthermore, oral corticosteroids are suggested for exacerbations. Most of the experts recommend long-term follow-ups. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the current survey, the experts' practice not only is remarkably variable over each other but also differs from the current guidelines. Further investigations and practical workshops are strongly recommended to improve the experts’ performance in FESS

Hypochondriasis in Patients Seeking Revision Rhinoplasty

AbstractBackground: Revision rhinoplasty is one of the most complicated surgeries. However, there exists a lack of information about the psychological status of the non-traumatic revision rhinoplasty candidates.Purpose: The purpose of the present research is to investigate the frequency of hypochondria among these patients.  Methods: The current study was designed prospectively with 57 patients seeking revision rhinoplasty from June 2015 to July 2016 in two university hospitals. There were 57 candidates of revision rhinoplasty and 47 participants in the control group, from which 33 (32.4%) were male and 69 (67.6%) were female. The control group was selected randomly from patients visiting the otolaryngology clinic who had no previous type of cosmetic surgery. The data were analysed using the software program SPSS, performing a MANOVA test.Results: Among 102 participants in our study, 57 (55.88%) were candidates of revision rhinoplasty with 11 (19.25%) male and 46 (80.70%) female patients.  The average age was 25.56±6.52 years old among the patients. Most of the patients (78.94%) were between the age of 19 and 34. There was a significant difference between the  group seeking revision rhinoplasty and the control group in the total score of hypochondria, appearance-related mind’s preoccupation and fear/worry sub-scale (P<0.0001).Conclusion: Our results indicated a high prevalence of appearance-related mind’s preoccupation, fear/worry and hypochondria among revision rhinoplasty candidates. Our data showed that decision on seeking revision rhinoplasty is a personal opinion, which may not be affected by friends and family.

Effect of psychological stress on the salivary alpha amylase and cortisol levels in EFL teachers

Background: Job stress threatens teachers’ well-being and health. Identifying physiological factors that underline job stress is crucial for teachers’ health and students’ learning. This cross sectional study examined the cycle of stress biomarkers (salivary cortisol and alpha amylase) over the course of teaching among Iranian English teachers. Materials and Methods: 59 English teachers from two foreign language institutes in Bushehr province, southern Iran volunteered to participate in this study. The participants’ saliva samples were collected three times over the course of a usual teaching day (before class, during class, and after class). Salivary alpha amylase and cortisol levels were analyzed in the biomarker Sina Lab in Bushehr using commercially available and research-based kinetic reaction (sAA) (Pars Test) and immunoassay (cortisol) kits (IBL). Results: A significant pattern was found for alpha amylase while cortisol did not show any significant change over the course of teaching. Conclusion: The findings highlighted the usefulness and importance of measuring physiological biomarkers in studying teachers’ stress

Comparison of endoscopy and CT scan in diagnosing chronic rhinosinusitis without polyps

Background: Definite diagnosis of Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is challenging mostly because of overlapping symptoms with other disorders. Nowadays it is mostly dependent on cross sectional imaging. When considering the prevalence and cost burden of CRS, reducing the frequency of cross sectional imaging by replacing it with endoscopic evaluation could be a cost effective way if the endoscopic examination proved to be a suitable substitution. Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the endoscopy with CT scan- as gold standard method- in diagnosis of CRS without polyp and to find out how well the results of the two correlate with each other. Methods: Adult patients with symptom criteria compatible with EPOS 2020 entered the study. They were evaluated endoscopically, and then scored by Lund Mackay CT score. Cases with obvious polyps seen on rhinoscopy or endoscopic evaluation were not entered the study. Results: A total of 49 patients entered the study.  Comparing endoscopic findings with CT scan showed the sensitivity of 69.70% and specificity of 50%. Cohen Kappa statistics of 0.191 was obtained. Positive and negative predictive value was 74.19% and 44.44% respectively. Of note, all 8 patients with Kennedy score of 4 showed positive CT results, and, all 4 cases with isolated sinusitis had negative endoscopic results. Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.63, which showed a significant positive correlation between Lund Kennedy and Lund Mackay scores. (p<0.05) Conclusion: Our observations lead us to a possible need for revision in presented endoscopic criteria to increase the diagnostic power of endoscopy in chronic rhinosinusitis sine nasal polyposis

Efficient Semantic Segmentation on Edge Devices

Semantic segmentation works on the computer vision algorithm for assigning each pixel of an image into a class. The task of semantic segmentation should be performed with both accuracy and efficiency. Most of the existing deep FCNs yield to heavy computations and these networks are very power hungry, unsuitable for real-time applications on portable devices. This project analyzes current semantic segmentation models to explore the feasibility of applying these models for emergency response during catastrophic events. We compare the performance of real-time semantic segmentation models with non-real-time counterparts constrained by aerial images under oppositional settings. Furthermore, we train several models on the Flood-Net dataset, containing UAV images captured after Hurricane Harvey, and benchmark their execution on special classes such as flooded buildings vs. non-flooded buildings or flooded roads vs. non-flooded roads. In this project, we developed a real-time UNet based model and deployed that network on Jetson AGX Xavier module

Olfactory and gustatory manifestations in hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Background: Pulmonary involvement is the main clinical and imaging feature of the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19). However, some patients present with upper airway symptoms. Aim: In this study, we report upper respiratory manifestations, specifically focusing on smell and taste disorders in COVID-19. Methods: We performed this cross-sectional prospective study in patients admitted to Masih Daneshvari Hospital, a tertiary referral center in Tehran, Iran, with severe COVID-19 as documented by the polymerase chain reaction assay. Results: We included 268 hospitalized patients, 183 (68.3%) men and 85 (31.7%) women. The average age was 52.8±16.4. The sinonasal symptoms included nasal obstruction (44 [16.4%]), rhinorrhea (31 [11.5%]), sneeze (33 [12.3%]), headache (77 [28.6%]), facial pain (12 [4.5%]), associated with hypogeusia (65 [24.2%]) and olfactory dysfunction (90 [33.5%]). In 35 (38.9%) patients with olfactory symptoms, change in the smell was the sole initial manifestation of COVID-19. On logistic regression, the relationship between the olfactory symptoms and headache (p=0.002), nasal obstruction (p=0.0001) and sneeze (p=0.018) were statistically significant. Conclusion: We report a considerable prevalence of olfactory and gustatory symptoms in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Not infrequently, these symptoms were the sole initial presenting symptoms in the course COVID-19. During the current pandemic, we suggest that presence of these symptoms should mandate expedited screening for COVID-19, isolation and close monitoring of the patients for evolution of the clinical course

The Geographical Distribution of Laryngeal Cancer in Iran from 2004 to 2014

Background: Laryngeal cancer accounts for about 1 to 2 % of all cancers; this incidence rate depends on the geographical region and ethnicity. Due to the lack of a comprehensive epidemiological study on laryngeal cancer in recent years, we designed this study to investigate the incidence and geographical distribution of laryngeal cancer. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the incidence and geographical distribution of laryngeal cancer in Iran from 2004 to 2014. Methods: The data collected from the Iranian National Cancer Data System registry, all the cases of laryngeal cancer (with topography code 32 and histology of laryngeal cancer) have been retrieved and analyzed from a comprehensive cancer database during the 11 years' period. Then statistical data were analyzed by SPSS, version 16. Results: During the 11-year study, 13,241 new cases of laryngeal cancer were recorded, of which 11454 were men (86%) and 1788 were women (14%). According to this assessment, North Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and East Azerbaijan provinces had the highest growth rate, and North Khorasan, Gilan, and Kerman provinces with the highest incidence rates of 4.44, 3.29, and 2.23 per 100,000 respectively, between 2004 and 2014. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the incidence rate of laryngeal cancer, especially in women, is increasing in Iran. Further studies are needed to investigate the causes of increased incidence

The potential of highly nutritious frozen stages of Tyrophagus putrescentiae as a supplemental food source for the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii

Astigmatid mites have potential as supplementary prey items to support generalist predator populations in crops. However, applying living prey mites has some disadvantages; if not predated they have the potential to cause crop damage and allergies. In this study, we evaluated various diets based on the astigmatid mite Tyrophagous putrescentiae (Schrank) as a supplemental food source for the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii Ahias-Henriot. Eggs and larvae of T. putrescentiae were reared on a diet of dog food (rich in proteins and fat) or bran (rich in carbohydrate); they were offered either frozen or alive, and either with or without cattail pollen (Typha angustifolia L.). Oviposition rate of A. swirskii fed with frozen mite larvae reared on dog food was similar to the rate observed when they were fed with cattail pollen or living prey mites, but developmental time of A. swirskii was longer on this frozen diet than on a diet of living prey mites or pollen. Both living and frozen prey mites were, in contrast with cattail pollen, not suitable for oviposition by western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande. In a greenhouse study, the use of frozen prey mite stages as supplemental food on chrysanthemum plants allowed populations of A. swirskii to establish, but not increase; in contrast, provision of living prey mites and pollen increased A. swirskii populations on plants. Hence, our study shows that living prey mites, but not frozen prey mites, had the greatest potential as a supplemental food source for A. swirskii.</p