Introduction Despite the high prevalence of hypocalcemia in patients with COVID-19, very limited studies have been designed to evaluate etiologies of this disorder. This study was designed to evaluate the status of serum parameters involved in calcium metabolism in patients with COVID-19 and hypocalcemia. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 123 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Serum concentrations of PTH, 25 (OH) D, magnesium, phosphate, and albumin were assessed and compared across three groups of moderate/severe hypocalcemia (serum total calcium < 8 mg/dl), mild hypocalcemia (8 mg/dl ≤ serum total calcium < 8.5 mg/dl) and normocalcemia (serum total calcium ≥ 8.5 mg/dl). Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the independent roles of serum parameters in hypocalcemia. Results In total, 65.9% of the patients had hypocalcemia. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 44.4% and 37.7% of moderate/severe and mild hypocalcemia cases, respectively, compared to 7.1% in the normal serum total calcium group ( P = 0.003). In multivariate analysis, vitamin D deficiency was independently associated with 6.2 times higher risk of hypocalcemia ( P = 0.001). Only a minority of patients with hypocalcemia had appropriately high PTH (15.1% and 14.3% in mild and moderate/severe hypocalcemia, respectively). Serum PTH was low/low-normal in 40.0% of patients with moderate/severe low-corrected calcium group. Magnesium deficiency was not associated with hypocalcemia in univariate and multivariate analysis. Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency plays a major role in hypocalcemia among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Inappropriately low/low-normal serum PTH may be a contributing factor in this disorder.

Background: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a common disease which infects women. The current study investigated the performance of direct sample polymerase chain reaction (DS-PCR) method to detect Candida spp. in clinical samples of vulvovaginitisto compare the results to those of standard microbiological laboratory methods. Objectives: The current study aimed to further simplify the DNA extraction procedure, and shorten the time required for isolation and identification by using direct PCR to identify Candida vulvovaginitis without DNA extraction from samples or colonies. Patients and Methods: In the current study, totally 150 sexually active women participated. Vaginal discharge samples were collected using two sterile Dacron swabs that were immediately placed in two tubes each containing 1 mL of distilled water. One of the tubes was used for conventional culture methods whereas the other one was used for DS-PCR without DNA extraction. The number of yeast cells in each sample was counted. Results:The results showed that out of the 150 samples, 55 were positive and 63 samples were negative by both methods, and 32 samples were positive using the culture method, but negative by DS-PCR. All positive DS-PCR samples had > 10 7 yeast or conidia cells/mL. The sensitivity and specificity of DS-PCR were calculated as 63.2% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: Direct sample PCR has the potential to rapidly and accurately diagnose Candida vulvovaginitis in patients, especially if sufficient samples are obtained.