ABSTRACT
The outcome of human viral infections is highly dependent on the host features. The scale of COVID-19 spread and amount of deaths caused motivate scientists to search for ways to combat this pandemic. We have reviewed 34 scientific papers taking into account two main points of COVID-19: the biology behind the infection and the methods used to model the outcome of the disease. The findings of the studies suggest that host genetic factors impact the clinical manifestation and outcome of COVID-19. Scientists are modelling COVID-19 using various computational methods, including genome-wide, exome-wide, and phenome-wide association analyses. Machine learning and some other methods are used to model COVID-19 to obtain new insights into the pathogenesis of the disease. As for now, there is a limited number of causal studies about COVID-19 and host genetic factors. © 2022 University of Bologna. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) therapy of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the pandemic times of new coronavirus SARSCoV- 2 became an emerging problem. The most challenging issues involve rising concerns about CPAP safety, difficulties in CPAP tolerance because of symptoms of viral infection and low therapy adherence. We decided to investigate how demographic and clinical factors have influenced CPAP therapy during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we have examined n149 adults (n = 109 male and n = 40 female) with OSA in the period from March 4, 2019 to March 3, 2021 (before and after pandemic breakout). Data on CPAP therapy were collected via telemetric system. Statistical analyzes were performed using the Dell Statistica 13.1 application. We have calculated arithmetic means and standard deviations for quantitative variables, for qualitative variables - percentages. The Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to check the distribution of variables. The hypotheses were tested with t-tests dedicated to unrelated and related variables, respectively. The differences between the mean values at p value < 0.05, < 0.01 and < 0.001 were considered significant. The mean age of study group estimated 62.26 +/- 10.82 years. Together, results showed that COVID-19 pandemic had no significant impact on CPAP therapy. However, detailed analysis showed that age, gender and clinical features (co- existing diabetes and hypertension) influenced CPAP usage. The difference between average median usage of CPAP in individuals below or equal to 65 years and more than 65 years were statistically significant before (364.83 +/- 100.43 and 398.24 +/- 94.50, p < 0.05) and after pandemic outbreak (362.35 +/- 129.97 and 403.73 +/- 139.13, p < 0.05). The differences between average set pressure in normotensives and hypertensives before (8.73 +/- 1.59 and 9.88 +/- 2.16, p < 0.05) and after pandemic outbreak (8.87 +/- 1.60 and 10.05 +/- 2.21, p < 0.05) were also statistically relevant. Overall, results suggest that COVID-19 pandemic had no impact on CPAP therapy in obstructive sleep apnea. However, detailed results showed that age, gender, co-existing diabetes or hypertension seemed to affect CPAP effectiveness during COVID-19 pandemic. Our results provide a good starting point for discussion on CPAP therapy recommendations.