ABSTRACT
An emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected the rethinking of existing healthcare systems. The increased need for hospital beds appeared short after the outbreak of the pandemic and the solution was to adapt the existing buildings, primarily public ones. Among all, sports buildings, i.e. sports halls were successfully used around the globe for conversion into hospitals. Topic of the paper was to investigate whether sports halls in Serbia, which were also used as temporary hospitals, are suitable for conversion in terms of energy consumption needed for achieving thermal comfort. Two case studies were analysed. The energy simulations were done using the DesingBuilder software. The results of thermal comfort summary and energy consumption led to the conclusion that this building type in Serbia could be successfully used for hospital purposes. Although the multiple increase in energy consumption was noted during the heating period, the results were within the limits required by both national and international standards. © 2023 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 terms and conditions
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Disturbed redox homeostasis plays multiple roles in COVID-19 pathogenesis. Still, data on the level of oxidative stress by-products in COVID-19 patients are scarce. Aim: To assess the profile of oxidative stress by-products during the course of acute COVID-19 and get more insight into the origin of the systemic oxidative stress in these patients. Material and methods: Malondialdehyde (MDA), 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), as well as clinical inflammatory and biochemical parameters were determined in plasma of 58 COVID-19 patients, on admission, as well as 7 and 14 days upon admission. Results: The highest levels of MDA and AOPP were observed at the time of diagnosis. Based on correlations between 8-OHdG and ALT activity (p = 0.028) or creatinine concentration (p = 0.003) subclinical liver and kidney damage contribute to systemic oxidative stress in the early phase of disease. Seven days upon admission, a significant drop in MDA and AOPP levels was observed, while plasma concentration of 8-OHdG increased (p < 0.005). At this point, a significant correlation of AOPP with inflammatory biomarkers such as CRP (p = 0.016) and absolute number of neutrophils (p = 0.041) was found. 14 days upon admission, a noticeable increase was observed in AOPP (p = 0.004) and MDA levels (p = 0.038), compared to the second point, but without reaching initial values. Moreover, significant correlation was observed between AOPP (p = 0.046) or MDA (p = 0.029) levels with IL-6, as one of the key inflammatory players. Regarding the biochemical parameters, significant correlation of AOPP levels was found with the activity of plasma non-functional enzymes AST (p = 0.001) and LDH (p = 0.030). Conclusions: Significant changes in MDA, 8-OHdG and AOPP levels exist during the course of COVID-19. Correlation between by-products of oxidative damage and clinical immunological or biochemical parameters confirms the suggested involvement of neutrophils networks, IL-6 production, as well as liver and kidney damage involvement in systemic oxidative stress. Keywords: COVID-19;oxidative stress;MDA;AOPP;8-OHdG.
ABSTRACT
Background/Aim. The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) primarily affects the respiratory system, so radiological diagnosis has been shown to be necessary. Chest computed tomography (CT) is to be shown the best modality in suspected COVID-19 cases for initial evaluation because CT findings may be present before the onset of symptoms. The aim of this study was to show different CT imaging features or patterns in COVID-19 patients with a different time course and disease severity. Methods. This prospective cohort study analysed 330 patients (the average age was 52.37 +/- 15.36) with confirmed COVID-19 via laboratory testing. During hospitalization, all patients included in the study underwent chest CT in order to assess the extent of changes in their lungs. COVID-19 patients, with a different time course and disease severity, were classified into four categories: lung, bronchial, pleural and mediastinal changes. Based on the time interval between the onset of symptoms and performed CT scan, all patients were divided into three groups: group 1 (CT scans done <= 1 week after symptom onset);group 2 (from > 1 to 2 weeks after symptom onset);group 3 (from > 2 weeks after symptom onset). In order to monitor the distribution of changes in the lungs more accurately, bilateral lungs were divided into 12 'lung zones. Each zone was assigned a CT score. Total severity score was calculated by summing the scores for each zone. Results. In 93.6% patients with COVID-19, the CT findings were positive. About 92.1% patients had multiple lesions. The lesions were bilateral in 87.6% of patients, localized both peripheral and centrally in 63.3% of patients, and occurred more frequently in posterior areas (93%), as well as in lower lung zones (91.2%). The average total severity score was 11.00 (7.00-16.00). The most common CT findings in all patients were the ground-glass opacities (97.7%), reticular pattern (91.3%), consolidation (71.5%) and fibrotic streaks (63.8%). In the group 1, changes on CT were found in 80.0%, in the group 2 in 95.0%, and in the group 3 in 99.4% of the patients. Conclusion. CT is proven to be a very important diagnostic method in COVID-19 patients, and together with clinical and laboratory findings, gives a complete picture of the patient's condition and contributes significantly to decision-making for further treatment.
ABSTRACT
It is hard to overstate the importance of a timely prediction of the COVID-19 pandemic progression. Yet, this is not possible without a comprehensive understanding of environmental factors that may affect the infection transmissibility. Studies addressing parameters that may influence COVID-19 progression relied on either the total numbers of detected cases and similar proxies (which are highly sensitive to the testing capacity, levels of introduced social distancing measures, etc.), and/or a small number of analyzed factors, including analysis of regions that display a narrow range of these parameters. We here apply a novel approach, exploiting widespread growth regimes in COVID-19 detected case counts. By applying nonlinear dynamics methods to the exponential regime, we extract basic reproductive number R0 (i.e., the measure of COVID-19 inherent biological transmissibility), applying to the completely naïve population in the absence of social distancing, for 118 different countries. We then use bioinformatics methods to systematically collect data on a large number of potentially interesting demographics and weather parameters for these countries (where data was available), and seek their correlations with the rate of COVID-19 spread. While some of the already reported or assumed tendencies (e.g., negative correlation of transmissibility with temperature and humidity, significant correlation with UV, generally positive correlation with pollution levels) are also confirmed by our analysis, we report a number of both novel results and those that help settle existing disputes: the absence of dependence on wind speed and air pressure, negative correlation with precipitation;significant positive correlation with society development level (human development index) irrespective of testing policies, and percent of the urban population, but absence of correlation with population density per se. We find a strong positive correlation of transmissibility on alcohol consumption, and the absence of correlation on refugee numbers, contrary to some widespread beliefs. Significant tendencies with health-related factors are reported, including a detailed analysis of the blood type group showing consistent tendencies on Rh factor, and a strong positive correlation of transmissibility with cholesterol levels. Detailed comparisons of obtained results with previous findings, and limitations of our approach, are also provided. © Copyright © 2021 Salom, Rodic, Milicevic, Zigic, Djordjevic and Djordjevic.