ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), having an increased inflammatory state due to an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, intermittent hypoxia, and increased cytokines, may aggravate the immune response for COVID-19 infection. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of OSA upon inflammatory response and length of stay in patients with favorable outcomes. METHODS: Patients admitted to an outpatient clinic after being hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 were included consecutively in this cross-sectional multicenter observational study. STOP-Bang Questionnaire and a cut-off value of 3 points were used to identify patients with a high risk of OSA. RESULTS: Study population consisted of 201 patients with a median STOP-Bang score of 2.0 (1.0-4.0) points. According to the cut-off value of 3 points, 94 (46.8%) patients were classified as high-risk OSA patients. High-risk OSA patients were older, had many comorbidities such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and diabetes mellitus, had higher serum D-dimer, ferritin, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin measurements, and had a longer hospital stay. Possible risk factors associated with length of stay were age, lymphocyte count, and total STOP-Bang score. Multivariable analysis revealed that a 1 point increase in STOP-Bang score results in a 0.43 day longer hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of OSA within COVID-19 patients with favorable outcomes is similar to the general population. However, the length of stay is related to the presence of high-risk OSA. Our study, therefore, suggests that OSA is related to delayed improvement of COVID-19 infection.
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic is a major global healthcare problem nowadays, and because of the high numbers of infected patients, it is vitally important to distinguish this from other types of viral pneumonia caused by influenza or adenovirus, which may have similar signs and symptoms. We conducted a narrative literature review and performed a PubMed and Scopus search for studies published up to November 18, 2020, using the following medical subject headings terms: ["comparison," "comparisons" AND "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2," "ncov," "2019 ncov," "covid 19," "sars coy 2," "coronavirus," "coy" AND ("influenzas," "influenza," "influenzae," "human influenza" OR "adenoviridae," "adenovirus," "adenoviridae infections")]. This narrative review aims to compare pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, influenza, and adenovirus in terms of clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics. In conclusion, although these viral pneumonia clinics share the similar patterns of symptoms and laboratory findings;we believe that there have some distrinctions especially in radiological findings.