RESUMO
Objective: The prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been reported widely. In this study, the prevalence of gastrointestinal system (GIS) involvement in pediatric COVID-19 and its effect on prognosis were investigated. Methods: Children (aged 0-18 years) with acute COVID-19 were included in the study. The patients were grouped according to system involvement: isolated respiratory system (RS), isolated GIS, and combination of both (RS+GIS). These groups were compared in terms of demographic data, clinical characteristics, laboratory and imaging findings, and hospitalization. Results: A total of 223 pediatric patients were included in the study. Of these patients, 19 were asymptomatic, 12 were diagnosed with a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, 21 had chronic disorders that may affect disease severity, and 27 had symptoms not related to RS or GIS. The remaining 144 patients were classified according to system involvement: 79 (35.4%), 14 (6.3%), and 51 (22.9%) had isolated RS, isolated GIS, and RS+GIS involvement, respectively. The GIS group was much younger than the RS group (median, 30 and 150 months, respectively, p=0.006). Three patients from the RS group were followed in the intensive care unit (ICU). Moreover, 17 (21.5%) and 4 (7.8%) patients from the RS group had severe-critical respiratory symptoms, in the RS+GIS group had severe-critical respiratory symptoms (p=0.039). Conclusions: Our study showed that GIS involvement in children with COVID-19 is more prevalent than RS involvement in the younger age group. Respiratory symptom severity and ICU admission also decreased with accompanying GIS involvement. GIS involvement was still associated with a milder disease course after adjustment for age.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND/AIM: The endothelial lipase gene (LIPG) has a major role in regulating high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), therefore this study investigated whether LIPG is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) in a Turkish population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The LIPG (584 C/T) mutation was analyzed in 74 CAD patients and 73 controls. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the two groups regarding the mutant T allele frequencies (χ2=0.456, p=0.020; 26.7% and 41.8% in patient and control groups, respectively) for 584 C/T. Even though the TT genotype was not significantly different, it had p=0.054 which supported our results. CONCLUSION: The endothelial lipase gene (584 C/T) T allele might be protective in association with coronary artery disease. Therefore, LIPG gene is related to risk for CAD in the Turkish population probably through altering HDL-C metabolism.
