ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by coronavirus-2 associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). Although most infected individual sare asymptomatic, a proportion of patients with COVID-19 develop severe disease with multiple organ damage. Aim: The present study aimed to correlate autoimmune diseases with the mechanisms triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methodology: The Center for Biotechnology Information (PubMed) and the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases were used for this study. As inclusion criteria, articles arising from the correlation of autoimmune diseases with COVID-19 were selected. Development: Studies have elucidated that SARS-CoV-2 can disrupt self-tolerance and trigger immune responses through cross-reactivity with host cells, culminating in the production of autoantibodies, and consequently, the development of autoimmune diseases. However, the risk of infection and prognosis of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases remains controversial, and further studies are needed to understand the complexity of the correlation between the virus and the onset of these diseases.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV2 infection (PASC) are a novel terminology used to describe post-COVID persistent symptoms, mimicking somehow the previously described chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). In this manuscript, we evaluated a therapeutical approach to address PASC-derived fatigue in a cohort of past-COVID-19 positive patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A number of 100 patients, previously diagnosed as COVID-19 positive subjects and meeting our eligibility criteria, was diagnosed having PASC-related fatigue. They were recruited in the study and treated with oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy (O2-O3-AHT), according to the SIOOT protocol. Patients' response to O2-O3-AHT and changes in fatigue were measured with the 7-scoring Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), according to previously published protocols. RESULTS: Statistics assessed that the effects of O2-O3-AHT on fatigue reduced PASC symptoms by 67%, as a mean, in all the investigated cohort of patients (H = 148.4786 p < 0.0001) (Figure 1). Patients following O2-O3-AHT therapy, quite completely recovered for PASC-associated fatigue, a quote amounting to about two fifths (around 40%) of the whole cohort undergoing ozone treatment and despite most of patients were female subjects, the effect was not influenced by sex distribution (H = 0.7353, p = 0.39117). CONCLUSIONS: Ozone therapy is able to recover normal functionality and to relief pain and discomfort in the form of PASC-associated fatigue in at least 67% of patients suffering from post-COVID sequelae, aside from sex and age distribution.