Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygenation in Patients with Long COVID-19 Syndrome Using SF-36 Survey and VAS Score: A Clinical Pilot Study.

(1) Background: Long COVID syndrome (LCS) is a heterogeneous long-standing condition following COVID-19 infection. Treatment options are limited to symptomatic measures, and no specific medication has been established. Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) has been found to have a positive impact on the treatment of COVID-19 infection. This study evaluates both the feasibility and outcome of supportive HBO in patients with LCS. (2) Methods: Within 17 months, 70 patients with proven LCS were prospectively included. Each patient underwent a cycle of 10 subsequent HBO treatment sessions administered for 75 min at 2.2 atmospheres. Evaluation of the patients was performed before the first and after the last HBO session and 3 months afterwards. Statistical evaluation was based on an intention-to-treat analysis using Fisher's exact test and Student's t-test for paired samples. (3) Results: In total, 59 patients (33 females, 26 males; mean age: 43.9 years; range: 23-74 years; median: 45.0) were evaluable. After HBO, a statistically significant improvement of physical functioning (p < 0.001), physical role (p = 0.01), energy (p < 0.001), emotional well-being (p < 0.001), social functioning (p < 0.001), pain (p = 0.01) and reduced limitation of activities (p < 0.001) was confirmed. (4) Conclusions: Physical functioning and both the physical and emotional role improved significantly and sustainably, suggesting HBO as a promising supportive therapeutic tool for the treatment of LCS.

Diagnostic Accuracy of NICE Classification System for Optical Recognition of Predictive Morphology of Colorectal Polyps.

The NICE classification is an international endoscopic classification of colorectal neoplasia through a narrowband spectrum that on the basis of lesion colors, vascular pattern, and structure of the surface of the mucous membrane classifies colorectal neoplasms in three categories: type 1 as hyperplastic lesions, type 2 as adenomas, and type 3 as invasive tumors. The aim of this study was to verify diagnostic accuracy of the NICE classification system compared to the reference standard: histopathological analysis. This retrospective study was conducted by ten physicians on a sequential sample of 418 patients and 735 polyps. The total diagnostic accuracy of the NICE classification system is found to be 76.7%. Optical recognition is significantly better with larger polyps, high-risk lesions (HGIEN), and neoplastic lesions. This research has shown that the NICE classification system is at the moment inferior to histopathological analysis. However, it is noticed that some physicians achieve significantly better results, with the accuracy of diagnosis ranging from 59.5% to 84.2%. These results show that with proper training of physicians and the use of endoscope enhancements to improve image quality, the NICE classification system could in the future potentially replace the histopathological diagnosis process.