Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among patients attending Post COVID-19 follow-up clinic: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Post-COVID-19 syndrome appears to be a multi-organ illness with a broad spectrum of manifestations, occurring after even mild acute illness. Limited data currently available has suggested that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in COVID-19 cases. However, to our knowledge, no study has examined the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in post-COVID-19 cases and its effect on the symptom severity. The aim of this study is to both screen the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in post-COVID-19 syndrome patients and to study its relation to persistent symptoms. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional, single-center study was conducted involving all cases attending post-COVID-19 follow-up clinic from November 2020 to May 2021. Complete history, clinical examination, and laboratory analysis [kidney functions, serum calcium, C-reactive protein, serum ferritin, Serum 25-(OH) vitamin D] was done as well as HRCT chest. RESULTS: The study included 219 post-COVID-19 cases, 84% had deficient vitamin D levels (< 20 ng/dL); 11.4% had insufficient level (20-30 ng/dL) and only 4.9 % reported normal level. There was no link between levels of vitamin D with either the acute or post-COVID-19 symptoms in the studied groups. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among the study population, no association was observed between the levels of vitamin D and post-COVID-19 symptoms. It appears that post-COVID-19 syndrome pathophysiology involves a more complex interaction with the immune system. Dedicated clinical trials are advised to better study vitamin D levels and the related disease severity in COVID-19 patients.

Non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients have more frequent long COVID-19 symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Long COVID-19 syndrome refers to the persistence of symptoms for more than 12 weeks after the start of acute symptoms. The pathophysiology of this syndrome is not yet clear.OBJECTIVE: To assess long COVID-19 symptoms in hospitalised and non-hospitalised patients.METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was used. The study included 262 patients who were divided into two groups based on their hospital admission history: 167 (63.7%) were not hospitalised, while 95 (36.3%) were hospitalised.RESULTS: Long-COVID was reported in 157 out of 262 patients (59.9%), and was significantly more frequent in non-hospitalised patients (68.3% vs. 45.3%; P < 0.001). During the acute phase, hospitalised patients had more respiratory symptoms (95.9% vs. 85.6%), while non-hospitalised patients had more neuropsychiatric symptoms (84.4% vs. 69.5%; P < 0.05). Constitutional and neuropsychiatric symptoms were the most frequently reported persistent symptoms in both groups, but all persistent symptoms were more frequent in the non-hospitalised group (P < 0.005).CONCLUSION: Long COVID-19 symptoms affect both hospitalised and non-hospitalised patients. Neuropsychiatric manifestations were the most common persistent COVID-19 symptoms. Rehabilitation and psychotherapy could be advised for all recovered COVID-19 patients. Non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients should be counselled to contact healthcare providers whenever needed.

Cerebral cortical dysfunction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: role of transcranial magnetic stimulation.

SETTING: Chest and Neurology Departments, Assiut and Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Egypt. OBJECTIVES: To study a large population with respect to previous preliminary data, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a prognostic method for evaluation of cerebral cortical functions during acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD). DESIGN: In a case-control study, 41 patients with AE-COPD and 30 healthy controls were included. For all, TMS was used to assess corticospinal pathway function and cortical excitability. RESULTS: Patients demonstrated increased motor threshold (resting and active), central motor conduction time and increased cortical silent period. Significant correlation was identified between TMS parameters and pulmonary function tests (forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume 1%, forced expiratory volume in one second) and arterial blood gases (pH, paO(2) and HCO(3)), serum chloride and potassium. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the motor cortex is less excitable during AE-COPD. This is attributed to reduction of cortical excitability due to chronic hypoxaemia. Therefore, early detection of cerebral changes might be in accordance with the importance of early O(2) therapy in reducing morbidity and mechanical ventilation dependency in COPD. This opens discussion for future early therapeutic use of GABAergic and glutaminergic modulating drugs with oxygen to protect the brains of COPD patients.