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Introduction: Coinfection of COVID-19 with influenza pathogens, may complicate the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, which is a new concern. This study aims to evaluate COVID-19 and influenza coinfected cases during the flu season, while the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues., Methodology: The study was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022. A total of 1987 (1752 outpatients, 235 inpatients) patients were included, and 44 simultaneous COVID-19 and influenza laboratory-confirmed diagnoses., Results: During the study period, 1553 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, 390 influenza, and 44 were diagnosed with coinfection. The incidence of coinfected cases was 2.2% (n = 44) in all patients, When coinfected cases were examined, there was a statistically significant difference between the disease duration in the inpatients (19.86 ± 10.78 days) and the disease duration in the outpatients (7.63 ± 2.25 days) (p < 0.05). 31.8% (n = 14) of coinfected cases were hospitalized, and the mortality rate was 50.0% (n = 7) in hospitalized patients., Conclusions: Coinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and İnfluenza was not uncommon. Data on coinfected cases are limited in the literature. The coinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A should be considered in patients with complaints such as fever, myalgia, weakness, shortness of breath, and cough during the flu season. Using the diagnostic test showing two diseases in a single sample may contribute to protecting patient and community health in follow-up and treatment., Competing Interests: No Conflict of Interest is declared, (Copyright (c) 2024 Yeliz Çiçek, Hıdır Sarı, Duygu İmre Yetkin, Mehmet Özel.)

Aim: An urgent need to define clinical and laboratory parameters to predict progression to the severe and lethal forms of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). To investigate the direct/total bilirubin ratio (D/TBil), as a novel parameter, to predict the poor survival of COVID-19 Pneumonia., Methods: The clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters of hospitalised COVID-19 pneumonia patients were analysed from 20 March to August 1, 2020, in a tertiary hospital, retrospectively. All remarkable variables were selected for a forward stepwise binary logistic regression analysis to define the independent risk factors for mortality., Results: 537 (248 women and 289 men) patients were separated into two groups for analysis: survivors vs deceased. The mean age of the deceased group was statistically significantly higher than the survivor group 72 (30-92) years vs 50 (18-97) years (P < .001). D/TBil, age, gender, hypertension and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) variables contributed significantly to the binary logistic regression model. The mortality risk increased 14.6 times in patients with D/TBil > 0.5, and 2.4 times in patients with NLR > 4., Conclusion: D/TBil > 0.5 was associated with a novel parameter to poor survival of COVID-19 on admission. Also, the combination of age, gender, the presence of hypertension, D/TBil and NLR contributed significantly to predicting the poor survival of COVID-19., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose: The increasing tendency of chest CT usage throughout the COVID-19 epidemic requires new tools and a systematic scheme for diagnosing and assessing the lung involvement in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). To investigate the use of the COVID-19 Reporting and Data System (CO-RADS) classification and chest CT Involvement Score (CT-IS) in COVID-19 pneumonia., Material and Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 280 hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia in a tertiary hospital in Turkey. All patients underwent non-contrast CT chest imaging. Two radiologists interpreted all CT images according to CO-RADS classification without knowing the clinical features, laboratory findings. We used CT involvement score (CT-IS) for assessing chest CT images of COVID-19 patients. Also, we examined the relationship between CT-IS and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients., Results: Of the patients, 111(39.6%) had positive real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results. CO-RADS 5 group patients had statistically significant positive RT-PCR results than the other groups (P < 0.001). All of the CO-RADS 2 group patients (30) had negative RT-PCR results. The mean total CT-IS in CO-RADS 2 group was 3.4 ± 2.8. The mean total CT-IS in CO-RADS 5 group was 8.2 ± 4.7. Total CT-IS was statistically significantly different among CO-RADS groups (P < 0.001). The mean total CT-IS was statistically significantly different between survivors and patients died of COVID-19 pneumonia (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: CO-RADS is useful in detecting COVID-19 disease, even if RT-PCR testing is negative. CT-IS is also helpful as an imaging tool for evaluation of the severity and extent of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Objective: Early identification of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients at high mortality risk can improve patient care and prevent deaths. To identify prognostic predictors that increase COVID-19 patient mortality risk in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Methods: Retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics and serological biomarkers of ICU-COVID-19 patients was performed in a tertiary hospital from 24 March 2020 to 20 December 2020. Analysis was conducted on two groups of study participants: survivors and deceased. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine mortality risk. In order to determine prognostic predictors, the ANOVA test was used to compare the data of serological biomarkers on the day of patients' admission to the ICU and on the 5th day of follow-up. Results: A total of 335 patients (54.65%) were in the deceased group, and 278 (45.35%) were in the survivors group. A statistically significant difference was found between the deceased and survivor groups regarding mean age (p<0.001). According to multivariate analyses of patients' data, age, oxygen saturation, direct bilirubin, and ionized calcium were independent predictors of mortality (p <0.05). According to this analysis, age (OR=1.035, p=0.002, 95%CI 1.013-1.058), peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) (OR=0.912, p<0.001, 95%CI 0,873-0.953), direct bilirubin (OR=6.821, p=0.024, 95%CI 0.282-36.285), ionized calcium (OR=30.524, p=0.035, 95%CI 1.262-738.34) was found that it increased the risk of mortality. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, it was found that gender, age, and comorbidities had the highest odds ratios in terms of mortality. Conclusion: The study revealed that advanced age, low SpO2, high direct bilirubin, and elevated ionized calcium levels were independent predictors of mortality for COVID-19 patients in the ICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background/Aim: The common cardiac toxicities of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZ) are not well defined in COVID-19 patients. Index of cardiac electrophysiological balance (iCEB) is used as a novel risk marker for drug-induced arrhythmias. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ventricular repolarization using iCEB and other conventional ECG parameters such as the end of electrocardiographic T wave (Tp-e) interval, Tp-e/QT ratio, and Tp-e/ heart rate-corrected QT (QTc) ratio in COVID-19 patients treated with HCQ and AZ. Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 164 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia in the Emergency Department (ED) and then transferred to the ward or the intensive care unit in April 2020. Results: A total of 164 patients with a mean age of 47 (18) years (range: 18-97 years) included 83 (50.6%) females. There were 38 and 126 patients in Groups HTQ and HTQ+AZ, respectively. On the 5th day of hospitalization, all patients' heart rates were significantly lower (P<0.001), while QTc, QT max (V5-V6), QTmin, Tp-e (V5-V6), and iCEB values were significantly higher (P=0.01 and P<0.001 for the rest, respectively) compared to the basal values measured in the ED (P<0.001). iCEB values of the HTZ+AZ group were significantly higher than those of the HTQ group (P=0.03). iCEBc strongly positively correlated with Tp-e/QT (V5), and strongly negatively correlated with Tp-e (V5). Conclusion: The iCEB values were increased after HTQ and AZ treatment among COVID-19 patients, and strongly correlated with Tp-e and Tp-e/QT. iCEB is a simple, non-invasive method that can be a useful marker to evaluate ventricular repolarization in COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]