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Background The role of leukocytes and systemic inflammation indicators in predicting the severity and mortality of inflammatory diseases has been well reported, such as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), neutrophil/lymphocyte*platelet ratio (NLPR), derived neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), aggregate index of systemic inflammation (AISI), as well as systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) and systemic inflammation index (SII). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prognostic role of systemic inflammatory indicators in the mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with COVID-19. Methods This retrospective study included 169 COPD patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were obtained from the patients’ electronic records. The ability of systemic inflammation indeces to distinguish the severity of COVID-19 was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and survival probability was determined by the mean of Kaplan–Meier curves, with the endpoint being death. Results ROC curves showed that the AUD level was significant for WBC, MLR, SIRI, and AISI. Interestingly, Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed that survival was lower with higher MLR (HR = 2.022, 95% CI = 1.030 to 3.968, P Conclusion AISI in COPD patients with COVID-19 was a reliable predictor of mortality.

Serum decoy receptor 3 (DcR3) level increases in chronic inflammatory diseases. The present study aimed to examine serum DcR3 and IL-6 levels in male patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute exacerbation of the disease and correlations between these markers and airflow limitation. We measured serum DcR3 and IL-6 levels in 60 COPD patients [30 stable COPD (SCOPD), and 30 acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD)], and 30 control subjects and assessed their correlations with airflow limitation according to the COPD stage indicated by the global initiative for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (GOLD) criteria, peripheral O2 saturation (SpO2), and COPD assessment test (CAT) score. We also tested associations between serum DcR3 levels and COPD patients’ clinical parameters. Both serum DcR3 and IL-6 levels increased with increasing severity of airflow limitation in SCOPD and AECOPD groups (P

There is mixed evidence surrounding the relationship between tobacco use and COVID-19 infection/progression. The current study investigates beliefs and tobacco use behaviors and COVID-19 infection among a sample of smokers and never-smokers. Data were collected using an online survey distributed through Telegram, a cloud-based social media networking application in Iran from April 1 to May 31, 2020. The study participants included never-smokers (n = 511), current (past-month) waterpipe smokers (n = 89), current cigarette smokers (n = 158), and ex-smokers (n = 172). Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare tobacco use groups with never- smokers on beliefs, controlling for potential confounders. The study participants (n = 944) was mostly male (64%), had > high school education (76%), and lived in an urban area (91%), with mean ± SD age of 35.3 ± 10.8. Key findings of this study are that compared with never-smokers: (1) cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that smoking cigarette can lead to spreading COVID-19; (2) waterpipe smokers were more likely to believe that smoking waterpipe at home was a safe practice, that waterpipe protects against COVID-19, and smoking waterpipe may lead to a more rapid recovery from COVID-19; (3) both waterpipe and cigarette smokers believed that using e-cigarettes in public places was a safe practice during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (4) more than half of the ex-smokers stopped smoking due to COVID-19 and most of them planned to continue abstaining from smoking after the pandemic. Our findings underscore the need to raise awareness about the unsupported claims of a lower hazard of using tobacco products or possible protective effects against COVID-19 and to promote cessation programs.