Assessment of Attentional Functioning in Health Professionals of a Brazilian Tertiary Referral Hospital for COVID-19

This study is aimed at assessing differences in basic attentional functioning between substantial and minimal work-related exposure to COVID-19 patients in professionals working in a tertiary referral hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Therefore, hospital employees performed a Continuous Visual Attention Test. This test consisted of a 90-second Go/No-Go task with 72 (80%) targets and 18 (20%) nontargets. For each participant, reaction time and intraindividual variability of reaction times of all correct target responses, as well as the number of omission and commission errors, were evaluated. Participants were divided into 2 groups based on their exposure to COVID-19 patients (substantial versus minimal exposure). The substantial exposure group consisted of participants with 24 hours/week or more direct contact with COVID-19 patients. This cut-off was based on the clear division between professionals working and not working with COVID-19 patients and considered that 12-hour and 24-hour daily shifts are common for hospital employees in Brazil. A MANCOVA was performed to examine between-group differences, using age, sleep quality, sex, education level, previous COVID-19 infection, and profession as covariates. Of 124 participants, 80 had substantial exposure and 44 had minimal exposure to COVID-19. The overall MANCOVA reached statistical significance ( P = 0.048 ). Post hoc ANCOVA analysis showed that the substantial exposure group had a statistically significantly higher intraindividual variability of reaction time of all correct target responses ( P = 0.017 , Cohe n ’ s δ = − 0.55 ). This result remained after removing those with a previous COVID-19 infection ( P = 0.010 , Cohe n ’ s δ = − 0.64 ) and after matching groups for sample size ( P = 0.004 , Cohe n ’ s δ = − 0.81 ). No other variables reached statistical significance. Concluding, hospital professionals with a substantial level of exposure to patients with COVID-19 show a significant attention decrement and, thus, may be at a higher risk of accidental SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Review of histopathologic findings of endometrial biopsy done at a tertiary referral hospital in urban Ethiopia

10.1101/2020.04.16.044610 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lemi B Tolu ◽

Solomon Kabtamu ◽

Mustefa Abedella ◽

Garumma Tolu Feyissa ◽

Elias Senbeto

Keyword(s):

Transvaginal Ultrasound ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Endometrial Biopsy ◽

Referral Hospital ◽

Endometrial Polyp ◽

Tertiary Referral ◽

Tertiary Referral Hospital ◽

Endometrial Sampling ◽

Histopathologic Finding ◽

Secretory Endometrium

AbstractBackgroundAn endometrial sampling procedure is a gold standard for the diagnostic evaluation of women with abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) with primary aim to identify the cause, especially to determine whether carcinoma or premalignant lesions are present. The objective of the study is therefore to review endometrial biopsy specimen histopathological findings and associated factors at a tertiary referral hospital in urban Ethiopia.MethodologyThis is a two years retrospective analysis of cases of patients for whom endometrial biopsy was taken at a territory referral hospital in urban Ethiopia. Odd’s ratios, 95% confidence interval and p-value set at 0.05 were used to determine the statistical significance of the associations.ResultsA total of 277 patient records were analyzed and mean and the median age of the study patients were 41.89 and 40.00 years respectively. The commonest histopathologic finding was endometrial polyp 66 (23.83%), followed by proliferative endometrium 47 (16.97%) and secretory endometrium 25(9.03%). Endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial malignancy, and pregnancy complications were reported in 9 (3.25%), 13 (4.69%), and 25 (9.03%) of cases respectively. Endometritis was detected in 20(7.22%), while Tuberculous (TB) endometritis was reported in 3(1.08%) of cases only. Inconclusive and inadequate sample was reported in 30 (10.83%) and 34 (12.27%) of cases respectively. Endometrial polyp was associated with 40-49 years of age (OR= 12.56, 95% CI: 2.58-61.23).ConclusionsEndometrial polyp was the commonest histopathologic finding followed by proliferative and secretory endometrium respectively. Rate of sample inadequacy is higher than most of the study reports which mandates to improve sampling technique to increase sample adequacy and routine transvaginal ultrasound for endometrial evaluation especially for those postmenopausal women to decide the necessity of endometrial sampling.

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