What are the factors that affect post COVID 1st month's continuing symptoms?

AIM: The aim of our research was to investigate retrospectively the relationship between the symptoms and general characteristics, initial laboratory values and treatments in patients who had COVID-19 and who applied to the chest diseases outpatient clinic for control after 1 month. METHOD: Three hundred fifteen patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and applied to the chest diseases outpatient clinic between May 2020 and August 2020 for control in the 1st month were included in the study. Patient information was collected from the hospital information system and the e-pulse system. RESULTS: Females accounted for 50.2% of our patients and their mean age was 47.9 ± 14.8 (19-88) years. About 14.3% (n: 45) of the individuals were 65 years of age and older, 20.6% (n: 65) of our patients were smoking and 70.2% (n: 221) of our patients were treated at home. A total of 133 patients had at least one comorbid disease. The patients most frequently reported cough, dyspnoea, weakness, myalgia and diarrhoea. The most common symptoms were cough, dyspnoea, weakness and myalgia in the 1st month. Initial D-dimer, initial CRP and the values of platelet, D dimer and CRP in the 1st month were detected to be higher in patients with persistent symptoms when the laboratory values of patients whose symptoms continue after 1 month were examined. It was determined that the symptoms had persisted in patients who had been hospitalised, had dual therapy, had comorbid diseases and had more common pathologies in their pulmonary imaging. CONCLUSION: Symptoms may persist for a long time in hospitalised patients, in patients with COVID-19-related pneumonia and concomitant chronic diseases and in patients with high D-dimer and high CRP at the time of admission. Patients are informed that their symptoms may last for a long time, unnecessary hospital admissions can be avoided.

Retrospective evaluation of patients with organizing pneumonia: is cryptogenic organizing pneumonia different from secondary organizing pneumonia?

INTRODUCTION: Organizing pneumonia (OP) is an uncommon clinic opathological situation among lung diseases. If no underlying cause can be detected, it is named as cryptogenic OP (COP). In this study, the etiologic and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed as OP in our hospital in the last ten years were evaluated retrospectively. It was also aimed to make a comparison between COP and secondary OP patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred sixty-five patients diagnosed as OP pathologically in the 10 year period from August 2003 to August 2013 were included into that study. Patients' data were evaluated retrospectively from the medical records. RESULT: One hundred sixty five patients pathologically diagnosed as OP were included. Diagnostic methods were trans-thoracic fine-needle biopsy (TTFNB) in 89 (53.9%) patients, open lung biopsy (lobectomy, wedge resection, segmentectomy) in 52 (31.5%) patients and transbronchial biyopsy (TBB) in 24 (14.5%) patients. One hundred (60.6%) of the patients were defined as COP and 65 (39.4%) as secondary OP. Cough, fatigue and dyspnea were the most common symptoms on admission. We detected OP cases secondary to anthracosis and cyst hydatic besides other well known etiologies. In 61 patients, the main radiologic manifestation was multiple bilateral patchy consolidation typical for OP. In 76 patients focal lesions (solid mass, cavitating mass lesion) and in 6 patients infiltrative opacities were detected radiologically. CONCLUSIONS: There is no difference between properties of OP from clinical, laboratory and radiologic finding sin the criptogenic and seconder form of OP. Although it is not asserted, cyst hidatic and anthracosis could be kept in mind for the list of underlying ethiologies for secondary OP.

Prognostic Value of the Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) in Lung Cancer Cases

Haemogram assessment is a cheap and easy method which can be readily performed for almost all patients. Leucocyte, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are markers of systemic inflammation. We here aimed to evaluate haemogram parameters of our patients with lung cancer according to the pathologic diagnosis of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: The study included 386 patients diagnosed with lung cancer in our hospital between January 2006 and January 2014. A retrospective examination was made of the data from the patient records and the hospital information. NLR values were categorised into two groups: <3 and ≥3. Results: Median survival time in patients aged <65 years was 28.7 months and in those aged ≥65 years, it was 18.4 months (p<0.001). The median survival time was 20.2 months in NSCLC and 13.0 months in SCLC patients (p<0.001). In NSCLC cases with NLR<3 the median survival time (31.1 months) was longer than that of patients with NLR≥3 (18 months) (p=0.003). In SCLC patients, no relationship could be found between NLR and median survival time (p=0.408). With every 1 unit increase in lymphocyte count a 5.5% decrease in risk of periodic death ((1/0.947)x100=5.5%) was noted. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, Hb, Htc, and NLR are useful in determining prognosis in lung cancer (LC) patients and NLR could be more significant in determining the prognosis in NSCLC than in SCLC cases.

ß-HCG secretion by a non-small cell lung cancer: a case report.

Paraneoplastic secretion of beta human chorionic gonadotropin (ß-HCG) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been rarely reported. A 43-year old male patient was admitted with dyspnea and chest pain. Thorax computed tomography (CT) revealed bilateral multiple masses and pleural effusion at right hemithorax. Positron emission tomography (PET)-CT showed pathologic 18 FDG uptake at mass lesions and mediastinal lymph nodes. The serum ß-HCG level was elevated. A bronchoscopy was performed and endobronchial lesion was observed. Since a definitive diagnosis was not achieved by pathologic examination of biopsy specimen, bronchoscopy was repeated and a sample was taken by cryobiopsy. The pathologic examination revealed non-small cell lung cancer.In conclusion, the case was presented because of extremely rare occurence of NSCLC secreting ß-HCG.