No abstract

No abstract

Background Since late 2019, the outbreak of COVID-19 has rapidly spread worldwide. As it is a newly emerged disease, many of its manifestations and complications are unknown to us. Cardiac involvement and arrhythmias are another aspect of the disease about which very little is known. Case summary A 71-year-old male patient presented at the Emergency Department complaining of fever, a dry cough, and dyspneoa. He was admitted due to these symptoms suggestive of COVID-19, and a chest CT and PCR test confirmed the diagnosis. During admission, cardiac involvement was detected, i.e. second-degree atrioventricular block with intermittent left bundle branch block (LBBB) which progressed to fixed LBBB and eventually developed into atrial fibrillation/flutter with bradycardia. Both cardiac troponin and echocardiographic findings for detecting myocarditis were negative. We waited 14 days for resolution of atrioventricular block before permanent pacemaker implantation, but the condition still did not improve after the waiting period. Discussion COVID-19 is mainly a respiratory infection but cardiac involvement is not uncommon in the course of the disease. Arrhythmia, during this infection, seems to be caused by an inflammatory response in the myocardium, electrolyte disturbances, and hypoxia; the course of the disease in our case study shows that the virus can preferentially and irreversibly involve the cardiac conduction system.

Context: Hypertension has been identified as the world’s third leading cause of death. Due to their cost-effectiveness and lack of adverse effects compared to antihypertensive medications, medicinal plants have gained popularity in most countries. The olive leaf is one of these plants. As a result, the purpose of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the effect of olive leaf consumption on systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Evidence acquisition: The following domestic and international databases were searched in order to retrieve relevant studies: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane, ProQuest, and Google Scholar search engine, the ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS), the ISRCTN registry administered by BioMed Central, and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The data collected were analyzed using STATA software (version14) at a significance level of P<0.05. Results: Olive leaf consumption had a significant effect on systolic blood pressure [-0.87 (95% CI: -1.09, -0.64)] and diastolic blood pressure [-0.39 (95% CI: -0.57, -0.21)] in five studies with a sample size of 145 people (mean age range of 33.30 ± 5.25 years). Consumption of olive leaves also decreased cholesterol levels [-0.52 (95% CI: -0.81, -0.22)], low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) levels [-0.35 (95% CI: -0.58, -0.12)], and triglycerides levels [-0.67 (95% CI: -1.19, -0.16)]. Nonetheless, the olive leaf had no statistically significant effect on reducing highdensity lipoprotein levels. Conclusion: We observed that olive leaf consumption significantly reduced the levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-c. Registration: The current protocol was also registered on PROSPERO (ID: 221277, Date: 16.04.2022).

No abstract