The present study aimed at evaluating the prevalence of general and sinonasal symptoms in patients with olfactory symptoms and mild coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and determining the patterns in emergence and resolution of olfactory/gustatory symptoms relative to general and sinonassal symptoms. This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at the outpatient otorhinolaryngology clinic at a COVID-19-designated referral Hospital. We included consecutive patients with new-onset olfactory dysfunction and positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay of COVID-19. We asked the patients to fill in a questionnaire about general and sinonasal symptoms in association with anosmia, hyposmia or hypogeusia, and recorded the time course of the olfactory/gustatory symptoms during 2-weeks of follow-up. 76 patients with average age of 38.5 ± 10.6 years were included. Majority of participants (94.7%) had general or sinonasal symptom. There was anosmia in 60.5% and hyposmia in 39.5%, with sudden onset of olfactory symptoms reported in 63.2% of patients. During the follow-up, 30.3% of patients completely and 44.7% partially recovered from anosmia/hyposmia. Regardless of whether the general or olfactory symptoms appeared initially, the general symptoms resolved first while a degree of olfactory dysfunction persisted during the follow-up. Our study showed that hyposmia and anosmia in mild COVID-19 are frequently associated with general and sinonasal symptoms and tend to persist longer than the general and sinonasal symptoms during the course of the disease.

There are limited numbers of articles, studying combined use of antihistamines. In this study, we compare single therapy of Apo-Cetirizine with a new regimen of intermittent sequential therapy with cetirizine, loratadine and chlorpheniramine in treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis. This randomized clinical trial was performed between April and September at the peak prevalence of seasonal allergic rhinitis. Fifty-four eligible patients diagnosed clinically to have seasonal allergic rhinitis were randomized in two groups: 24 cases in single therapy arm, received Apo-Cetirizine 10 mg tablet daily and in other arm, 30 patients received sequential regimen of cetirizine 10 mg tablet, loratadine 10 mg tablet and chlorpheniramine 4 mg tablet, one tablet each day. Major Symptom Complex Score (MSCS) and Total Symptom Complex Score (TSCS) of patients were recorded before treatment and after 30 days of treatment in two groups. The average post-treatment MSCS and TSCS in combination therapy group showed better improvement than single therapy group but difference was not statistically significant (p value = 0.053 and p value = 0.104 respectively). Combination therapy regimen was better in improvement of nasal congestion (p value = 0.006). There were no significant difference between two groups in efficacy, side effects and patient's satisfaction. Combination therapy would be effective on a wide spectrum of symptoms with lower price and theoretically offers lower chance of tolerance and re-appearance of complaints.

Background & Objective: Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with prognosis in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Similar to the global studies, different prevalence rates of this viral infection have been reported in Iran. Therefore, we aimed to report the prevalence of this virus and its significance in HNSCC patients. Methods: Patients who were referred to the five hospitals of Tehran city from May 2018 to May 2019 were enrolled in this study. All patients were diagnosed with HNSCC based on pathologic study. The pathologic disease staging was defined, and DNAs were extracted from the fresh tissue samples via kits. After polymerase chain reaction (PCR), HPV positive samples were evaluated for determining genotypes and data analysis. Results: Of the 46 patients, three patients (6.5%) showed positive HPV results with the following subtypes: 18 (in two patients), 52 (in three patients), 61 (in two patients), 67, and 73. Comparison of variables between the groups with and without HPV showed a significant difference based on the tumor’s lymphatic invasion ( P =0.041), peripheral lymph node involvement ( P =0.008), and histologic grade ( P =0.011), but no statistically significant difference in terms of other variables such as age, primary tumor site, size, pathologic stage, vascular or perineural invasion, metastasis, smoking, and alcohol consumption was found.