Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Rash is a common complaint in children that has many causes and the various differential diagnoses. Therefore, urgent and appropriate clinical diagnosis is necessary to provide immediate medical intervention. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of skin rash in children hospitalized due to rash.
Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was performed on all patients admitted for skin rashes in Hazrat Masoumeh Hospital in Qom, Iran from 2010 to 2015. In this study, the data of 317 patients who were admitted to the early diagnosis of rash were collected from patients' files and recorded in the checklist.
Results: According to our study, the most common causes of skin rashes in children were viruses with a share of 40.69% (129 cases), allergic causes being as prevalent as 21.77% (69 cases) and drug induced rashes that accounted for 20.50% (65 cases). Based on the site and type of rashes, the most common type of rashes were maculopapular rashes with 42% and hives with 31.9% prevalence, and the most common site of involvement was diffuse involvement that would account for 84% of the cases. In terms of drug use history, 35.6% had a history of antibiotic use prior to admission, and 14.5% had an antiepileptic drug use history. There was a significant relationship between the cause of rashes and the season of presentation (P< 0.05) as well as the age of presentation (P< 0.05).
Conclusion: This study showed that there is a significant relationship between the season and age of occurrence, but the use of these factors as a benchmark for the diagnosis of rash requires more studies. Paying attention to the causes of rash in children, knowing about these factors, and continuous evaluation of these patients can help in advancing a proper management of the problem of patients. The most frequent factors were viruses and then allergic and pharmaceutical agents, and the most common type was maculopapular.

Background: Health care associated infections (HAIs) are a class of infections that infect patients during hospital admissions and receive medical services. These infections occurs within 48 to 72 hours of admission and up to 6 weeks after discharge. Surveillance of device-associated infections (DAIs) in intensive care units (ICUs) is substantial in planning healthcare strategies. This study was conducted to determine the device-associated infections' burden and antimicrobial resistance patterns.
Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, three common device-associated infections included central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLA-BSI), ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CA-UTI), were assessed in intensive care units of Besat Hospital in Hamedan from April 2017 to April 2018. In order to determine the incidence of device-associated infections, the number of device-associated infection cases was calculated during the study period and divided into the number of device-days used. The device-days included all days of exposure to that device (vascular catheter, endotracheal tube (ventilator), or urinary catheter) in all patients in the study population.
Results: Out of 1806 intensive care unit admitted cases, 168 patients (9.3%) were device-associated infection with distribution of 92 cases (55%) of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), 56 cases (34%) of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CA-UTI) and 20 cases (11%) of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CL-BSI). The incidence of VAP, CA-UTI and CL-BSI was 44.7, 17.5, and 21.61 days, respectively. The most organisms were Acinetobacter (27.4%), Klebsiella (18.3%), Escherichia coli (E. coli) (15.4%). Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) was 75%. Acinetobacter resistance to colistin and carbapenem was 16.8%. About half of Pseudomonas isolates were resistant to meropenem.
Conclusion: According to the present findings of this study, a high incidence of device-associated infections and resistant organisms in our intensive care units were documented, which represents a need to reinforce the preventive and control programs. Various results in different studies can be due to differences in the level of health care in different centers and countries.