ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and led to worldwide pandemic in March 2020. Due to early diagnose, treatment and prevent transmission of COVID-19 disease, we need rapid laboratory tests and develop them. This paper focuses on serum Iron level in patients with COVID-19. We assess the serum Iron level due to the following reasons: I. Iron is a key part of hemoglobin structure in which is essential for providing Oxygen to the body organs, particularly for the patients with pulmonary involvement such as COVID-19. II. Iron deficiency can contribute to muscle weakness and reduction of respiratory capacity, at which increases the risk of deterioration of COVID-19 patients. III. Elevation in Hepcidin level (due to the increase in IL-6 level) in COVID-19 patients inhibits Iron absorption from intestinal lumen and blocks the Iron release from macrophages. IV. Iron is an essential element in infectious suppress and inflammatory process. We noticed that most of the patients, especially admitted to hospital due to the respiratory symptoms, have lower serum Iron level.
ABSTRACT
Background: Vitamin D plays an important role in many immune and allergic diseases, and its deficiency is more in areas with low solar radiation. Asthma is a common disease in children of Ardabil city. The present study was designed to evaluate vitamin D levels in asthmatic children in Ardabil. Methods: A total of 100 asthmatic children (40% boys and 60% girls) with a mean age of 5.7 ± 3.46 years (1-15 years) and who visited the Bou-Ali pediatric hospital were included. Vitamin D levels, disease course, IgE levels, and eosinophil counts were evaluated. A group of healthy children was also included to compare vitamin D levels between asthmatic and non-asthmatic children. All data were analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS v.16. Results: The vitamin D levels in asthmatic children were lower than those in the healthy group. Furthermore, the increase in the vitamin D level was significantly associated with lower history of hospitalization (P = 0.02), better response to bronchodilator treatment (P = 0.01), lower IgE level (P = 0.02), and decrease in the mean age of children (P = 0.04). However, no significant association between vitamin D levels and sex (P = 0.08), history of anti-inflammatory drug use (P = 0.78), and eosinophil count (P = 0.08) was observed in asthmatic children. Conclusion: Results showed that vitamin D deficiency was more common in asthmatic than in non-asthmatic children and the level of vitamin D was directly associated with the response of the children to treatment.