BACKGROUND: The dietary habits and lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic could affect the urinary risk factors in kidney stone formers. In this study, we investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on 24-h urine metabolites, as a surrogate for dietary intake, in patients with kidney stones, in Tehran, Iran. METHODS: We evaluated the medical records of all patients with urolithiasis who visited in our stone prevention clinic from the beginning of COVID-19 in Iran to 1 year later (Feb 2020-Feb 2021) and compared it with the patients' medical records in the same period a year before COVID-19 (Feb 2019-Feb 2020). RESULTS: The results of our stone prevention clinic showed a decrease in the number of visits during COVID-19. Twenty-four-hour urine urea, sodium, and potassium were significantly lower, and 24-h urine magnesium was significantly higher during COVID-19. Higher 24-h urine oxalate was only shown in patients with the first-time visit, whereas lower 24-h urine uric acid and citrate were only shown in patients with the follow-up visits. CONCLUSIONS COVID-19 pandemics may change some of the dietary habits of the patients, including lower salt, protein, and fruit and vegetable intake. Although economic issues, restricted access, or sanitation issues may be the reason for the undesirable dietary changes, the importance of a quality diet should be discussed with all patients, as possible. Since the number of patients visited in the stone clinic was lower during COVID-19, virtual visits could be an excellent alternative to motivate patients with kidney stones.
COVID-19 ; Humans ; Iran/epidemiology* ; Kidney ; Kidney Calculi/prevention & control* ; Pandemics ; Risk Factors ; SARS-CoV-2

Trichoepitheliomas are benign follicular appendage tumors with differentiation to all three segments of the hair follicle. A 2 years old female domestic short hair cat presented with a mass on the tail. The mass was surgically excised and for histopathologic and immunohistochemical studies, was sent to Department of Pathology. Histologically, the tumor was encapsulated and consisted of many islands of follicular epithelium and also cysts structures which varied in size and shape. The cells of epithelium islands were round to oval and had variable amounts of slightly, eosinophilic cytoplasm and euchromatic nuclei. The cystic structures were lined by a complex layer of squamous epithelium. Often, cells under went an abrupt transition between basal layers and keratinization without the development of a granular cell layer. No tendency of malignancy was seen in this case. According to mentioned characteristics, trichoepithelioma was diagnosed. By immunohistochemical study it was confirmed that this tumor had epithelial origin because squamous tumor cells reacted with the pan-cytokeratin antibody. The expression of β-catenin was predominately cytoplasmic and also together with numerous positive nuclei but membranous expression was inconsistenet. Distribution of neoplastic cells with β-catenin expression was more than 75% and labeling intensity was strong in both cytoplasm and nuclei. According to author’s knowledge, this is the first report of trichoepithelioma in cat in Iran and also investigation of β-catenin expression in feline trichoepithelioma in veterinary literature.