The Mental Burden of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Post-pandemic View From a Romanian Sample.

Background: The enduring psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect individuals long after the immediate health concerns have subsided. This research aims to identify specific groups within the Romanian population who are at a higher risk of experiencing mental health challenges that can interfere with everyday life and may lead to more serious mental health disorders.

Methods: Conducted as a cross-sectional survey, this study assessed the severity of psychological distress using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire in relation to COVID-19-related information and socio-demographic data to investigate the factors associated with psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania.

The relationship between chronic lung diseases and lung cancer - a narrative review.

Lung cancer and chronic lung diseases are currently two of the main causes of death in the world. Both conditions have common etiological factors and multiple research directions in the last decades demonstrated the presence of some common relevant biological mechanisms which can explain why patients with chronic respiratory diseases are at higher risk of developing lung cancer. In this review, we discuss the role of chronic pulmonary diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, asthma, pneumoconioses, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and their impact on lung cancer development.

Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis Triggered by Interferon Beta-1b Therapy of Multiple Sclerosis: Four Case Reports and a Literature Review.

In this paper, we reported on four cases of severe pulmonary active tuberculosis in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) undergoing interferon beta-1b (IFNβ-1b) therapy. Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in MS may increase the risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB) due to their impact on cellular immunity. Screening for latent infection with (LTBI) should be performed, not only for the newer DMTs (alemtuzumab, ocrelizumab) but also for IFNβ-1b, alongside better supervision of these patients.

Does Phantom Tumor Really Exist?!

Localized interlobar effusion in congestive heart failure (known as phantom tumor or vanishing tumor of the lung) is an uncommon entity. We report a case of a 61-year-old man who presented to the Emergency Departament with a two week history of dyspnoea, palpitations, dry cough and intermitent anterior chest pain. A posteroanterior chest radiography showed a nodular mass in the medium third of the right hemithorax suggestive of a pulmonary tumor.