ABSTRACT
Objective To summarize the experience of five hospitals in Guangdong Province 0n successfully transporting retained passengers by chartered flights during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the operation and management, cabin arrangement, isolation requirements, and personnel protection in the aspect of epidemic prevention and control. Results In 11 charter missions, over one thousand "healthy" passengers with potential risk of infections were transported back to China. The medical delivery team and flight crew were kept free of infection, passengers maintained zero cluster infections and no unexpected adverse events during the air transport. Conclusions Our results indicate how to carry passengers in a scientific and orderly way is crucial for avoiding the transmission risks of the epidemic of COVID-19 among working staffers and passengers.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to determine the clinical significance of Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) in patients with COVID-19, so as to find a marker with high sensitivity, specificity and easy detection to evaluate the lung injury and inflammation of COVID-19. Sixty-three COVID-19 patients and 43 non-COVID-19 patients with similar clinical phenotypes and/or imaging findings were enrolled to test the levels of KL-6 using chemiluminescent immunoassay. In addition, the blood gas, imaging and lymphocyte factors tests were collected from all participants. The data was finally analyzed using multivariate statistical analysis. The results showed KL-6 levels in COVID-19 patients were higher than those in non-COVID-19 patients (P < 0.001). Moreover, the KL-6 levels in severe and critically severe patients were significantly upregulated compared with patients with mild and common type (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the imaging evaluation showed a significant correlation between KL-6 and pulmonary lesion area (P < 0.05). KL-6 was also found to be significantly correlated with oxygenation index and oxygen partial pressure difference of alveolar artery (PA-aDO2) (Both P < 0.01). In conclusion, KL-6 could be an indicator to evaluate the progression of COVID-19, which is parallel to the level of lung injury and inflammation in patients. Moreover, it can also reflect the pulmonary ventilation function.