Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 significantly marked people’s lives with respect to their behavior, and their physical and mental health. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2021 for a period of 5 months. The study sample included 218 students from the College of Physical Education and Sports of the University of Suceava who filled in a questionnaire on mental, physical and behavioral symptoms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Anxiety Assessment Questionnaire (STAI). Results: The responses indicated increased anxiety, physical symptoms, altered behavior, and increased perception of social restrictions. Regression analyses indicated that the levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak were strongly correlated with cognitive, physical and behavioral symptoms of the students. These were influenced by the living arrangements, location (urban vs. rural), age group and study year. Conclusions: The results show that first-year students did not exhibit significant physical and cognitive symptoms despite reporting anxiety, probably due to their enthusiasm as beginners. The 3rd year students were prone to anxiety and reported cognitive symptoms, possibly due to the prospects of an uncertain future.

Sinziana Calina Silisteanu, Loredana Mitariu, Remus Ranga, Elisabeta Antonescu, Corina Lavinia Duica, Mihaela Racheriu, Maria Totan, Marinela Minodora Manea - Potentarea efectului tratamentului cu voltaren gel prin utilizarea ultrasunetelor cu frecvente de 1 MHz

Background: Occupational stress and burnout in the medical field are common factors that can have a negative impact on the quality of clinical care. In the Romanian healthcare environment, there exists important financial difficulties contributing additionally to stress in this study, we aimed to investigate if resilience and emotional intelligence would prove to be protective factors against stress. Methods: In our cross-sectional study, we investigated 189 medical professionals, using convenience sampling, from July 2022 to September 2022 in two university centers. We applied a self-reported questionnaire that included socio-demographic characteristics and three scales that measured perceived stress (the Perceived Stress Scale), resilience to stress (the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale), and emotional intelligence (the short-form Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire). Results: Age was positively associated with resilience levels, meaning that resilience increases with age. While specialist physicians had the highest emotional intelligence score, nurses and other healthcare workers had the highest resilience scores. Perceived stress level was negatively correlated with resilience to stress and with emotional intelligence levels. Resilience to stress was positively correlated with emotional intelligence. Conclusions: The major strength of this study is the finding that resilience to stress mediated the association between perceived stress and emotional intelligence. Because resilience is negatively associated with burnout, resilience to stress and emotional intelligence are potential targets for training aimed at improving the working environment and reducing current levels of burnout in the Romanian Health System and beyond.

The characteristics, dynamics and mechanisms/determinants of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection are not fully understood. We performed a bibliometric review of studies that have assessed SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses in the pediatric population using Web of Science online databases, VOSviewer and Bibliometrix tools. The analysis was conducted on 84 publications, from 310 institutions located in 29 countries and published in 57 journals. The results showed the collaboration of scientists and organizations, international research interactions and summarized the findings on (i) the measured titers of antibodies (total antibody and/or individual antibody classes IgG, IgM, IgA) against different antigens (C-terminal region of N (N CT), full-length N protein (N FL), RBD, RBD Alpha, RBD Beta, RBD Gamma, RBD Delta, spike (S), S1, S2) in the case of different clinical forms of the disease; and (ii) the correlations between SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and cytokines, chemokines, neutrophils, C-reactive protein, ferritin, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The presented study offers insights regarding research directions to be explored in the studied field and may provide a starting point for future research.

Background: Low back pain is considered a public health problem internationally. Low back pain is a cause of disability that occurs in adolescents and causes negative effects in adults as well. The work environment and physical and psychosocial factors can influence the occurrence and evolution of low back pain. Methods: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the physiological and functional changes in young adults with painful conditions of the lumbar spine, after using exercise therapy. The study was of the longitudinal type and was carried out over a period 6 months in an outpatient setting. The rehabilitation treatment included electrotherapeutic modalities and kinesitherapy. Results: The results obtained when evaluating each parameter, for all moments, show statistically significant values in both groups. The results obtained regarding the relationship between the therapeutic modalities specific to rehabilitation medicine and low back pain are consistent with those reported in studies. Conclusions: Depending on the clinical-functional status of each patient, kinesitherapy can accelerate the heart rate and increase the blood pressure and oxygen saturation of the arterial blood, values that can later return to their initial levels, especially through training.

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze epidemiological and clinical features of children screened for COVID-19 at Sibiu Pediatric Clinical Hospital during the first 9 months (March–November) of coronavirus disease pandemic in Romania. A total of 203 pediatric patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in the study. The median age of the patients was 121 (IQR 18–181) months and 52.22% had mild clinical type with pneumonia, 35.47% were moderate cases, 3.94% severe cases, 0.99% critically ill cases and 7.39% were asymptomatic. The most common symptoms were fever (n = 130, 64.03%), nasal congestion (n = 138, 67.98%), cough (n = 128, 63.05%) followed by sore throat (n = 64, 31.52%), rhinorrhea (n = 63, 31.03%), fatigue (n = 57, 28.07%), headache (n = 47, 23.15%), diarrhea (n = 39, 19.21%), vomiting (n = 32, 15.76%), myalgia (n = 24, 11.82%), abdominal pain (n = 22, 10.83%). A higher proportion of infants with severe or critical disease was encountered with lymphopenia (n = 9, 90%), neutrophilia (n = 5, 50%), leukocytosis (n = 5, 50%) compared with asymptomatic infants (n = 10, 66.67%, n = 1, 6.67%, n = 3, 20%) or mild (n = 53, 50%, n = 19, 17.92%, n = 15, 14.15%) and moderate (n = 37, 51.39%, n = 9, 12.50%, n = 6, 8.33%) cases (p = 0.095, p = 0.042, p = 0.034). Pediatric patients generally had mild or moderate type of COVID-19, and the critically ill cases were rare. In our study, frequent symptoms were observed in both the systemic and respiratory systems, ear, nose and throat system, and less from gastrointestinal system, central nervous system or ocular system. Additionally, there is an increase in liver and myocardial enzyme levels with an increase in disease severity. Understanding the clinical and laboratory characteristics of pediatric patients is important for diagnosis, management and effective control of the disease.