Introduction: Cough is one of the most common presenting symptoms of COVID-19, which can persist for weeks or months. Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of gabapentin (GBT) alone and in combination with montelukast (MTL) for improving cough. Methods:In this open-label randomized controlled clinical trial, eligible cases were patients hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19 who had cough with a Breathlessness, Cough, and Sputum Scale (BCSS) score of at least 2 based on its cough subscale. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups including two experimental groups and one control group. The first and second experimental groups received GBT and GBT/MTL, respectively, whereas the control group received dextromethorphan (DXM).Treatment duration was 5 days in all groups. Before and after the interventions, the severity of cough was evaluated using BCSS scale and Visual Analog Scale (VAS).Results: A total of 180 patients were included; GPT, GPT/MTL, and DXM consisted of 76, 51, and 53 patients, respectively. There was no significant difference between the three groups in terms of age, gender, and comorbidities (P > 0.05). Regarding BCSS and VAS scores, there was significant reduction from the baseline values in all groups (P < 0.0001), with the change rate being significantly higher in DXM group. The amount of reduction of BCSS in the GPT/MTL group was significantly more than the GPT group, whereas there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding VAS score.Although the duration of hospitalization differed between the groups with the GPT/MTL group having the shortest duration, the difference was statistically significant only between the GPT and GPT/MTL groups (P < 0.0001).

We report a case of 32-years-old male with a cerebral phaeohyphomycosis post COVID-19 infection from Iran. The causative agent was identified by histopathology, routine mycological methods and confirmed by DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA and proved to be Neoscytalidium dimidiatum which is an opportunistic dematiaceous fungus belonging to Dothideomycetes.No apparent underlying disease was seen beside his COVID-19 complications and corticosteroid therapy. Symptoms indicative of his fungal infection appeared two weeks after his COVID-19 scenario. The brain MRI showed multi-focal CNS infection as abscess. Delayed identification of the fungus and antifungal treatment with amphotericin B may have affected the outcome, thus the patient died on day 25 post COVID-19 infection.Considering, rare incidence of infections due to N. dimidiatum, reporting this case will add to our awareness and may lead us to a timely management.

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Introduction: Chronic inflammation is one of the underlying causes of cardiovascular disease which is commonly seen in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and especially in end-stage renal disease (ESRD), as well as the patients on stable dialysis. Hemodialysis patients suffer from high mortality due to cardiovascular diseases. Objectives: Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of atorvastatin and aspirin on C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration in hemodialysis patients and compare the effect of these two drugs on CRP concentration in these patients. Patients and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, the dialysis patients who had been on dialysis for more than four months were selected through medical records (N=75). Serum CRP was checked and those who had positive CRP entered in the analysis (n=20). Ten patients had been used atorvastatin at a dose of 20 mg daily and the other 10 patients received aspirin at a dose of 80 mg daily for two months. Serum CRP concentration was measured in all patients at the end of these two months. Results: The mean age of the patients was 65.6 years and the mean number of years on dialysis was three years. In addition, 65% of patients were male and 35% were female. The only significant relationship was between the effect of atorvastatin and CRP concentration and the effect of aspirin on CRP concentration while no statistically significant relationship was found between the two groups of aspirin and atorvastatin in terms of serum CRP value after the intervention. Conclusion: The results indicated that the effect of aspirin and atorvastatin on CRP concentration was positive in hemodialysis patients and reduced the serum level of CRP, indicating the anti-inflammatory role of these two drugs in hemodialysis patients. It should be noted that drug preference was not determined in the present study.