BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The global pandemic caused by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions, with growing evidence of the potential role of ocular tissues in viral transmission. At the time of writing, local data regarding the phenomenon was limited. This study investigated external ocular manifestations in patients with COVID-19 at a referral center in the Philippines, examined correlations between demographics, systemic manifestations, and laboratory results with ocular manifestations, and determined their timing relative to systemic symptoms.

METHODS

This single-center, descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from December 8 to 18, 2020 at the adult COVID-19 wards of the Philippine General Hospital involving 72 participants. Data collection involved relevant clinical history taking and performing gross eye examination. The prevalence of ocular manifestations was described with 95% confidence intervals. Correlations between ocular manifestations and quantitative variables were analyzed with point-biserial correlation, and associations with qualitative variables were tested using chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests.

RESULTS

Among participants, 31.9% presented with ocular manifestations with foreign body sensation as the most prevalent ocular symptom (11.1%) and conjunctival hyperemia as the most prevalent ocular finding (19.4%). The median age of patients with ocular manifestations was 41 years old with a higher prevalence in the male population (73.9%, CI=95%, p=0.001). No significant correlation was observed between presence of external ocular manifestations and the different systemic and ocular co-morbidities as well as with COVID-19 clinical classification. Among those who experienced symptoms, majority (29.2%) of the patients experienced systemic symptoms prior to the onset of ocular symptoms. Ocular complaints may present as the sole manifestation (13.9%). Several laboratory parameters were measured and only temperature and AST levels showed a low positive correlation with the presence of ocular manifestations. 

CONCLUSION

Ocular manifestations occur in roughly one third of patients with COVID-19 based on this study population. With some individuals presenting with ocular signs or symptoms as the initial and sole manifestation, healthcare practitioners must exercise caution and remain vigilant in managing patients who present as such. At the time of writing, this is the first local study investigating the different external ocular manifestations in patients with COVID-19. There is a need to pursue more robust studies and conduct more local investigations which will guide both ophthalmologists and other practitioners in strengthening existing guidelines regarding precautionary practices, clinical diagnosis, and management of COVID-19 patients.

Human ; Sars-cov-2 ; Covid-19 ; Philippines ; Adult ; Association ; Classification ; Collection ; Confidence Intervals ; Coronavirus ; Cross-sectional Studies ; Data Collection ; Demography ; Diagnosis ; Disease ; Exercise ; Eye ; Foreign Bodies ; History ; Hospitals ; Hospitals, General ; Hyperemia ; Laboratories ; Male ; Morbidity ; Ophthalmologists ; Pandemics ; Patients ; Population ; Prevalence ; Referral And Consultation ; Role ; Sensation ; Temperature ; Time ; Tissues ; Volition ; World Health Organization ; Writing

The growing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has coincided with more timely manuscript submissions and improved efficiency in scientific writing. While AI tools help authors produce clear and well-structured work, excessive or undisclosed reliance raises concerns about originality, authenticity, and the integrity of scholarly publications. Editors increasingly recognize AI-assisted writing and face the challenge of preserving rigorous standards. Emerging guidelines emphasize transparency in AI use, alongside the need to retain individual voice and diversity in scientific expression. This editorial highlights the balance between leveraging AI’s benefits and safeguarding ethical publication practices, while acknowledging contributors to the current issue.

Writing ; Work ; Voice ; Reference Standards ; Artificial Intelligence ; Intelligence ; Efficiency

Human ; Writing ; Artificial Intelligence

Conducting and writing quality improvement studies is a skill that every family and community physician should learn and apply in their practice. As family and community physicians it is one of our responsibilities to provide quality health care to our patients.1 Simply put, “quality” is doing the right thing right the first time and doing it better the next. Similar to the doctor-patient interaction in a typical consult, where the physician’s objective is to learn as much as possible about the patient’s signs and symptoms and medical history in order to make the right diagnosis and thus render the right treatment. The physician strives to do all this on the first visit and hopes to keep up-to-date on the condition so that when another patient presents with the same condition, he or she will receive better and more current care.

Human ; Quality Improvement ; Writing

Case reports remain to be an essential part of knowledge generation in health care. It is a research design that involves writing about a patient’s illness with either an unusual, new, unexpected, or unique characteristic. It can be about new findings, a novel diagnostic test, unfamiliar adverse events or innovative medical and surgical interventions. It is a detailed description of a patient’s course of illness including symptoms, physical examination findings, laboratory results, treatment modalities and outcomes. The essential element of writing a case report or series is to contribute to the generation of new knowledge. Wellwritten manuscripts have a valuable purpose in medicine as they present new illness, unexpected effects of treatment, novel diagnostic exams or unforeseen patients’ outcomes. The sections of a case report include an Abstract, Introduction or Background, Case Presentation [history, physical examinations, investigations or laboratories, differential diagnosis (if relevant), treatment (if relevant), outcome/follow-up, Discussion, Learning points/Take home messages, Patients perspectives and References. Manuscripts written as case reports or case series by nature of their design are not required to get approval from an Ethics Review Board (ERB). However, there should be an institutional process to clear and register papers. Case reports or a case series has its own distinctive writing components and features as not all single or series of clinical cases are reportable. This article aimed to define case reports/series, describe the different parts, how to write and evaluate a case report manuscript using the CARE guidelines.

Case Reports ; Writing

Electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring is an important examination method in the management of critically ill neonates, which can be used to evaluate brain function and developmental status, severity of encephalopathy, and seizures and predict the long-term neurodevelopmental outcome of high-risk neonates with brain injury. EEG monitoring for neonates is different from that for adults and children, and its operation and interpretation are easily affected by the number of recording electrodes, electrode montage, and monitoring quality. Therefore, standard operation must be followed to ensure the quality of signal acquisition and correct interpretation, thereby ensuring proper management of critically ill neonates. The Subspecialty Group of Neonatology, Society of Pediatrics, Chinese Medical Association established an expert group composed of professionals in neonatology and brain electrophysiology to perform a literature review, summarize the minimum technical standards for neonatal EEG monitoring, and develop the expert consensus on minimum technical standards for neonatal EEG operation and report writing. This consensus will provide guidance for neonatal EEG operation, including technical parameters of EEG monitoring device, operation procedures of EEG monitoring, and specifications for report writing.
Adult ; Brain Injuries ; Child ; Consensus ; Electroencephalography/methods* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Seizures ; Writing

Reference Standards ; Writing

Asians ; China ; Humans ; Hypertension/drug therapy* ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Writing

To explore the methods of cultivating the clinical thinking ability of acupuncture and moxibustion in the standardized training of resident physicians, so as to improve the medical record writing ability of the regular training physicians. The clinical diagnosis and treatment of acupuncture and moxibustion has its own characteristics and can't copy the syndrome differentiation and treatment mode of TCM internal medicine. In the treatment section, Acupuncture and Moxibustion, a standardized training textbook for national TCM resident physicians, takes clinical cases as the breakthrough point and uses the problem as the guide, guides the training physicians to cultivate acupuncture and moxibustion clinical diagnosis and treatment from three aspects: disease diagnosis, syndrome diagnosis, and treatment ideas, forms a complete understanding of the disease, and improves the standardization, logicality and systematicness of medical record writing through repeated practical training.
Humans ; Moxibustion ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Medical Records ; Physicians ; Writing

Blackboard writing undertakes the dual task of knowledge transmission and classroom culture inheritance. Well-designed blackboard writing will not only help students to better memorize, understand and construct knowledge framework, but also create a serious but lively classroom atmosphere, strengthen the soul of moral education in the classroom, leading to improved quality of education. Taking the practice of blackboard writing in teaching the Biochemistry course as an example, the authors categorized the blackboard writing approaches according to the teaching objectives to be achieved, and discussed the necessity and application scope of each type of blackboard writing approach in the multimedia era. Our goal was to make blackboard writing, a conventional teaching approach, play an important role in the new era of classroom education.
Humans ; Students ; Writing