Aim To describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics along with outcomes of hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with and without diabetes. Methods This retrospective, single-center study included 595 consecutive hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 at Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from February 26, 2020 to March 26, 2020. Demographic data, clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings were collected and compared between patients based on diabetes status. Complications and clinical outcomes were followed up until April 4, 2020. Results From among the 595 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the median age was 55 years and 401 (67.4%) were male. The most common symptoms included fever (419 [70.4%]), dry cough (368 [61.8%]) and dyspnea (363 [61%]). A total of 148 patients (24.9%) had diabetes, and compared with patients without diabetes, these patients had more comorbidities (eg, hypertension [48.6% vs. 22.3%; P < 0.001]); had higher levels of white blood cell count, neutrophil count, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and blood urea nitrogen, and had a higher proportion of patchy ground-glass opacity in chest computed tomography findings (52.7% vs. 25.7%; P < 0.001). Significantly, patients with diabetes had more complications and needed more respiratory support than those without diabetes ( P < 0.001). At the end of the follow-up, treatment failure and death was significantly higher in patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes (17.8% vs. 8.7%; P = 0.003). Conclusion COVID-19 patients with diabetes are at a higher risk of complications and a higher in-hospital mortality during hospitalization. Diabetes status of COVID-19 patients and frequent monitoring of glycemia would be helpful to prevent deteriorating clinical conditions.

Several studies have been devoted to clear functionalization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in different fields such as cellular and molecular biology, microbiology, immunology and physiology. In line with the high diagnostic value of AuNPs, its therapeutic application has been intensively developed in tumour therapy, in recent years. One of the best clinical applications of AuNPs is its use in targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs. Recent studies have focused on the application of AuNPs to treat melanoma - a malignant neoplasm sourced from melanocytes skin cells - with poor prognosis in advanced stages. Furthermore, early diagnosis can be successfully achieved through utilizing this technique even at early stages with localized distribution. Herein, this study details the previous researches focusing on the use of AuNPs as a novel diagnostic and therapeutic option in management of melanoma.

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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a nosocomial pathogen, which, due to its inherent and acquired resistance to a wide range of antibiotics, causes high mortality rates. Therefore, rapid detection of the bacterium with high specificity and sensitivity plays a critical role in the control of the pathogenic bacterium. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and specificity of a prompt detection of the bacterium based on a triplex polymerase chain reaction that amplifies the lasI, lasR and gyrB genes. For this purpose, 30 clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa and 30 wound biopsy samples were retrieved from clinical diagnostic laboratories. After the extraction of the chromosomal DNA, the desired genes were amplified using uniplex and triplex PCR with appropriate primers. The specificity of the primers was evaluated by a comparison of the PCR results for P. aeruginosa clinical samples and non-Pseudomonas species control samples. The sensitivity of the primers was determined using a serial dilution of the genomic DNA template (100 ng to 100 fg) and by a comparison of the PCR and bacterial culture results. The results showed that the triplex PCR assay was positive for all of the samples (100%), while the PCR identifications were negative for non-Pseudomonas species. Additionally, at 10(-4) and 10(-5) diluted genomic DNA from P. aeruginosa (10 pg and 1 pg), the triplex PCR test was positive for the Las and gyrB genes in all of the samples, respectively. Based on these results, the designed primers can be used for the rapid, specific and sensitive diagnosis of P. aeruginosa in a triplex PCR assay.