Impaired perceptual discrimination of complex objects in older adults at risk for dementia.

Tau pathology accumulates in the perirhinal cortex (PRC) of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) during the earliest stages of the Alzheimer's disease (AD), appearing decades before clinical diagnosis. Here, we leveraged perceptual discrimination tasks that target PRC function to detect subtle cognitive impairment even in nominally healthy older adults. Older adults who did not have a clinical diagnosis or subjective memory complaints were categorized into "at-risk" (score <26; n = 15) and "healthy" (score ≥26; n = 23) groups based on their performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. The task included two conditions known to recruit the PRC: faces and complex objects (greebles). A scene condition, known to recruit the hippocampus, and a size control condition that does not rely on the MTL were also included. Individuals in the at-risk group were less accurate than those in the healthy group for discriminating greebles. Performance on either the face or size control condition did not predict group status above and beyond that of the greeble condition. Visual discrimination tasks that are sensitive to PRC function may detect early cognitive decline associated with AD.

Association between undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea and severe course of COVID-19: a prospective observational study.

PURPOSE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with many long-term health consequences. We hypothesized that previously unrecognized and untreated OSA may be associated with more severe respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Patients hospitalized in the Pulmonology Department with confirmed COVID-19, University Hospital in Kraków, Poland, between September 2020 and April 2021 were enrolled. OSA screening questionnaires including Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), STOP-BANG, Berlin questionaire (BQ), OSA-50, and No-SAS were completed. Polygraphy was performed after > 24 h without requirement for supplemental oxygen. RESULTS: Of 125 patients with median age of 61.0 years, 71% of whom were male. OSA was diagnosed in 103 patients (82%) and was categorized as mild, moderate, and severe in 41 (33%), 30 (24%), and 32 (26%), respectively. Advanced respiratory support was introduced in 85 patients (68%), and 8 (7%) patients eventually required intubation. Multivariable analysis revealed that increased risk of requirement for advanced respiratory support was associated with higher respiratory event index (OR 1.03, 95%CI 1.00 to 1.07), oxygen desaturation index (OR 1.05, 95%CI 1.02 to 1.10), and hypoxic burden (1.02 95% CI 1.00 to 1.03) and lower minimal SpO2 (OR 0.89, 95%CI 0.81 to 0.98), but not with results of OSA screening tools like BQ score (OR 0.66, 95%CI 0.38 to 1.16), STOP-BANG score (OR 0.73, 95%CI 0.51 to 1.01), NoSAS score (OR 1.01, 95%CI 0.87 to 1.18), or OSA50 score (OR 0.84, 95%CI 0.70 to 1.01). CONCLUSION: Previously undiagnosed OSA was common among hospitalized patients who survived the acute phase of COVID-19. The degree of OSA was associated with the severity of respiratory failure.

Sleep Differentially and Profoundly Impairs Recall Memory in a Patient with Fornix Damage.

In March 2020, C.T., a kind, bright, and friendly young woman underwent surgery for a midline tumor involving her septum pellucidum and extending down into her fornices bilaterally. Following tumor diagnosis and surgery, C.T. experienced significant memory deficits: C.T.'s family reported that she could remember things throughout the day, but when she woke up in the morning or following a nap, she would expect to be in the hospital, forgetting all the information that she had learned before sleep. The current study aimed to empirically validate C.T.'s pattern of memory loss and explore its neurological underpinnings. On two successive days, C.T. and age-matched controls watched an episode of a TV show and took a nap or stayed awake before completing a memory test. Although C.T. performed numerically worse than controls in both conditions, sleep profoundly exacerbated her memory impairment, such that she could not recall any details following a nap. This effect was replicated in a second testing session. High-resolution MRI scans showed evidence of the trans-callosal surgical approach's impact on the mid-anterior corpus callosum, indicated that C.T. had perturbed white matter particularly in the right fornix column, and demonstrated that C.T.'s hippocampal volumes did not differ from controls. These findings suggest that the fornix is important for processing episodic memories during sleep. As a key output pathway of the hippocampus, the fornix may ensure that specific memories are replayed during sleep, maintain the balance of sleep stages, or allow for the retrieval of memories following sleep.

Unrestricted eye movements strengthen effective connectivity from hippocampal to oculomotor regions during scene construction.

Scene construction is a key component of memory recall, navigation, and future imagining, and relies on the medial temporal lobes (MTL). A parallel body of work suggests that eye movements may enable the imagination and construction of scenes, even in the absence of external visual input. There are vast structural and functional connections between regions of the MTL and those of the oculomotor system. However, the directionality of connections between the MTL and oculomotor control regions, and how it relates to scene construction, has not been studied directly in human neuroimaging. In the current study, we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to interrogate effective connectivity between the MTL and oculomotor regions using a scene construction task in which participants' eye movements were either restricted (fixed-viewing) or unrestricted (free-viewing). By omitting external visual input, and by contrasting free- versus fixed- viewing, the directionality of neural connectivity during scene construction could be determined. As opposed to when eye movements were restricted, allowing free-viewing during construction of scenes strengthened top-down connections from the MTL to the frontal eye fields, and to lower-level cortical visual processing regions, suppressed bottom-up connections along the visual stream, and enhanced vividness of the constructed scenes. Taken together, these findings provide novel, non-invasive evidence for the underlying, directional, connectivity between the MTL memory system and oculomotor system associated with constructing vivid mental representations of scenes.

Says Who? Credibility Effects in Self-Verification Strivings.

Research shows that people prefer self-consistent over self-discrepant feedback-the self-verification effect. It is not clear, however, whether the effect stems from striving for self-verification or from the preference for subjectively accurate information. We argue that people prefer self-verifying feedback because they find it to be more accurate than self-discrepant feedback. We thus experimentally manipulated feedback credibility by providing information on its source: a student (control condition) or an experienced psychologist (experimental condition). In line with our expectations, the results of two preregistered studies with 342 adults showed that people preferred self-verifying feedback only in the control condition. In the experimental condition, the effect disappeared (or reversed, in Study 1). Study 2 showed that individual differences in credibility (epistemic authority) ascribed to the self and to psychologists matter as well. These findings suggest that feedback credibility, rather than the desire for self-verification, often drives the self-verification effect.

Association of discharge policy with the length of hospital stay among patients with coronavirus disease 2019: a cross-sectional study.

AIM: To assess the association between discharge policy and hospital stay length, and to evaluate the factors related to duration of viral clearance among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled consecutive patients aged ≥18 years with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test who were admitted to hospital. The participants were divided into the test-based (TB) policy group or symptom-based (SB) group depending on the policy valid at their hospital discharge. Multivariable analyses were performed to assess the factors related to the duration of hospital stay and viral clearance. RESULTS: The study involved 305 patients (66.6% men). The mean age was 60.9 (15.2) years. TB and SB policy groups consisted of 145 (47.5%) and 160 patients (52.5%), respectively. The TB group had significantly longer duration of hospital stay (21.0 vs 16.0, P=0.003). In multivariable analysis, SB policy was associated with significantly shorter hospital stay (ß-coefficient -5.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] -9.78 to -1.96, P=0.003). Longer viral clearance was associated with older age (ß-coefficient 0.33, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.51, P<0.001) and history of cough in the pre-hospital phase of the disease (5.96, 95% CI 0.64 to 11.29, P = 0.028). CONCLUSION: SB discharge policy is preferable in the context of limited resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clinical and Polysomnographic Features Associated with Poor Sleep Quality in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Background and Objectives: Poor sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be associated with different clinical and polysomnographic features. The aim of this study was to identify features associated with poor sleep quality in OSA patients. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study enrolling patients with OSA confirmed by polysomnography (PSG). In addition to gathering clinical data, patients were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Clinical Global Impression Scale. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify factors associated with an increased risk of poor sleep quality in this population. Results: Among 505 enrolled patients (mean age of 57.1 years, 69.7% male) poor quality of sleep (PSQI score ≥ 5) was confirmed in 68.9% of them. Multivariable analysis revealed the following factors associated with poor sleep quality: chronic heart failure (OR 3.111; 95% CI, 1.083−8.941, p = 0.035), male sex (OR 0.396; 95% CI, 0.199−0.787, p = 0.008), total ESS score (OR 1.193; 95% CI, 1.124−1.266, p < 0.001), minimal saturation during sleep (OR 1.034; 95% CI, 1.002−1.066, p = 0.036), and N3 percentage of total sleep time (OR 1.110; 95% CI, 1.027−1.200, p = 0.009). Conclusions: Our study suggests that both the female sex and coexistence of heart failure are independent risk factors for poor sleep quality. Moreover, we hypothesize that nocturnal hypoxia may lead to a misperception of sleep quality and may explain the counterintuitive association between a higher proportion of deep sleep and poor sleep quality.

The level of sexual satisfaction and life satisfaction during second the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably changed the lives of Polish people, creating anxiety and uncertainty. Life satisfaction and sexual satisfaction are subjective evaluations of life and the sexual sphere. Previous research indicates a relationship between sexual satisfaction and life satisfaction. AIM: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate what level of sexual satisfaction was present during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account gender, sexual orientation, and relational status, and to examine the relationship between sexual satisfaction and life satisfaction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: There were 440 participants, aged between 18 and 40 (M = 24.31, SD = 4.90). The study was conducted online. The Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire developed by Dolinskia-Zygmunt and Nomejko was used to measure sexual satisfaction, while the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diner et al. was used to measure subjective aspect of life satisfaction. RESULTS: Most of the respondents are satisfied with their life (33%) and sexual sphere (42%). Relationship status is important for the sense of both sexual and life satisfaction, while gender and sexual identity were not associated with any other variable. There is a positive correlation between life satisfaction and sexual satisfaction (r = 0.438, p <0.001). Regression analysis showed that significant predictors of life satisfaction are: sexual satisfaction (p <0.001) and relationship status. (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents self-rated their life satisfaction and sexual satisfaction highly, although being single can lower both types of satisfaction.

Subphenotypes of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory disease-exacerbated respiratory disease identified by latent class analysis.

BACKGROUND: Induced sputum (IS) allows to measure mediators of asthmatic inflammation in bronchial secretions. NSAID-exacerbated respiratory disease (NERD) is recognized as a distinct asthma phenotype, usually with a severe course, eosinophilic airway inflammation, and increased production of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. A more insightful analysis of NERD patients has shown this phenotype to be nonhomogeneous. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify possible subphenotypes in a cohort of NERD patients with the means of latent class analysis (LCA). METHODS: A total of 95 asthma patients with aspirin hypersensitivity underwent sputum induction. High-performance liquid chromatography or gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry was used to profile eicosanoids in induced sputum supernatant (ISS). Sixteen variables covering clinical characteristics, IS inflammatory cells, and eicosanoids were considered in the LCA. RESULTS: Three classes (subphenotypes) were distinguished within the NERD cohort. Class 1 subjects had mild-to-moderate asthma, an almost equal distribution of inflammatory cell patterns, the lowest concentrations of eicosanoids, and logLTE4 /logPGE2 ratio. Class 2 represented severe asthma with impaired lung function despite high doses of steroids. High sputum eosinophilia was in line with higher pro-inflammatory LTE4 in ISS and the highest logLTE4 /logPGE2 ratio. Class 3 subjects had mild-to-moderate asthma and were also characterized by eosinophilic airway inflammation, yet increased production of pro- (LTE4 , PGD2 and 11-dehydro-TBX2 ) was balanced by anti-inflammatory PGE2 . The value of logLTE4 /logPGE2 was between values calculated for classes 1 and 3, similarly to disease control and severity. CONCLUSIONS: LCA revealed three distinct NERD subphenotypes. Our results support a more complex pathobiology of aspirin hypersensitivity. Considering NERD heterogeneity, the relationship between inflammatory pathways and clinical manifestations of asthma may lead to more individualized treatment in difficult to treat patients in the future.

Artificial neural network identifies nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD) cohort.

BACKGROUND: To date, there has been no reliable in vitro test to either diagnose or differentiate nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD). The aim of the present study was to develop and validate an artificial neural network (ANN) for the prediction of N-ERD in patients with asthma. METHODS: This study used a prospective database of patients with N-ERD (n = 121) and aspirin-tolerant (n = 82) who underwent aspirin challenge from May 2014 to May 2018. Eighteen parameters, including clinical characteristics, inflammatory phenotypes based on sputum cells, as well as eicosanoid levels in induced sputum supernatant (ISS) and urine were extracted for the ANN. RESULTS: The validation sensitivity of ANN was 94.12% (80.32%-99.28%), specificity was 73.08% (52.21%-88.43%), and accuracy was 85.00% (77.43%-92.90%) for the prediction of N-ERD. The area under the receiver operating curve was 0.83 (0.71-0.90). CONCLUSIONS: The designed ANN model seems to have powerful prediction capabilities to provide diagnosis of N-ERD. Although it cannot replace the gold-standard aspirin challenge test, the implementation of the ANN might provide an added value for identification of patients with N-ERD. External validation in a large cohort is needed to confirm our results.

Heart Rate Variability in the Diagnostics and CPAP Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common manifestation of sleep-related breathing disorders that are often accompanied by dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. The main objective of the study was to assess the usefulness of heart rate variability (HRV) analysis in the diagnosis of patients with severe OSA and in the assessment of the effects of 3-month treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). There were 54 patients enrolled in the study. The OSA group consisted of 39 patients suffering from severe OSA (apnea/hypopnea index >30/h), and the control group included 15 non-OSA patients with matched demographic characteristics and comorbidities. All patients underwent 24-h Holter electrocardiographic monitoring. HRV was analyzed using the time- and frequency-domains. We found that OSA patients had decreases in time-domains and increases in frequency-domains of HRV, compared to non-OSA controls, which strongly suggested a clinically disadvantageous shift in the balance of parasympathetic/sympathetic activity toward the latter. Further, CPAP treatment, partly, albeit significantly, reversed the OSA-induced changes in HRV. We conclude that HRV analysis may be of help in the diagnosis of OSA and in the monitoring of the effectiveness of treatment.

[Induced sputum supernatant prostaglandin E2 during oral aspirin challenge of asthmatic patients with and without aspirin hypersensitivity and healthy controls--pilot study]. / Wplyw dawki prowokacyjnej aspiryny na poziom prostaglandyny E2 w plwocinie indukowanej u chorych na astme z i bez nadwrazliwosci na aspiryne oraz u osób zdrowych--badanie pilotazowe.

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate changes in the concentration of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in induced sputum supernatant in 3 groups: sub- jects with NSAID-exacerbated respira- tory disease (NERD), aspirin tolerant asthma (ATA) and healthy controls (HC), before and after oral aspirin chal- lenge test. The study was conducted in the years 2014-2015 at the Clinical Department of the Pulmonology Clinic at the University Hospital in Cracow. 43 patients were enrolled in the study (NERD - n = 15, ATA - n = 15 and HC - n = 13). All of them underwent a placebo-controlled oral aspirin challenge. Sputum was induced 24 hours before the challenge and immediately after the test. Induced sputum was processed in order to obtain cystospin slides to depict inflammatory cell patterns and supernatants, in which PGE2 was measured. The concentration of PGE2 was determined using mass spectrometry coupled with gas chromatography (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry - GC/MS). After aspirin challenge, the concentration of PGE2 in induced sputum supernatant decreased in both asthmatics hypersensitive to aspirin (p = 0.01) and those who tolerated aspirin well (p = 0.17). The change in the healthy control group was not statistically significant. These results support the cyclooxygenase theory of PGE2 inhibition by aspirin. However, the mechanism of bronchoconstriction after aspirin administration alone in patients with NSAID-exacerbated respiratory disease remains unclear.

Aspirin provocation increases 8-iso-PGE2 in exhaled breath condensate of aspirin-hypersensitive asthmatics.

BACKGROUND: Isoprostanes are bioactive compounds formed by non-enzymatic oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, mostly arachidonic, and markers of free radical generation during inflammation. In aspirin exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD), asthmatic symptoms are precipitated by ingestion of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs capable for pharmacologic inhibition of cyclooxygenase-1 isoenzyme. We investigated whether aspirin-provoked bronchoconstriction is accompanied by changes of isoprostanes in exhaled breath condensate (EBC). METHODS: EBC was collected from 28 AERD subjects and 25 aspirin-tolerant asthmatics before and after inhalatory aspirin challenge. Concentrations of 8-iso-PGF2α, 8-iso-PGE2, and prostaglandin E2 were measured using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Leukotriene E4 was measured by immunoassay in urine samples collected before and after the challenge. RESULTS: Before the challenge, exhaled 8-iso-PGF2α, 8-iso-PGE2, and PGE2 levels did not differ between the study groups. 8-iso-PGE2 level increased in AERD group only (p=0.014) as a result of the aspirin challenge. Urinary LTE4 was elevated in AERD, both in baseline and post-challenge samples. Post-challenge airways 8-iso-PGE2 correlated positively with urinary LTE4 level (p=0.046), whereas it correlated negatively with the provocative dose of aspirin (p=0.027). CONCLUSION: A significant increase of exhaled 8-iso-PGE2 after inhalatory challenge with aspirin was selective and not present for the other isoprostane measured. This is a novel finding in AERD, suggesting that inhibition of cyclooxygenase may elicit 8-iso-PGE2 production in a specific mechanism, contributing to bronchoconstriction and systemic overproduction of cysteinyl leukotrienes.

Working hard but not tired? The influence of task valuation on mental fatigue, effort investment, and task performance.

It has been demonstrated in previous studies that prolonged mental effort exertion evokes mental fatigue and leads to impairments in task performance. In the current investigation, we aimed to test the hypothesis that mental fatigue depends on motivational processes and can be influenced by task valuation. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated the value of the task by financial rewards (Study 1) and the sense of autonomy (Study 2). Contrary to our predictions, those manipulations did not influence the main dependent variables. We also introduced additional rewards after prolonged effort exertion. In line with our expectations, the results showed that mental fatigue increases with time spent on effortful tasks. Importantly, however, mental fatigue decreases when the value of the task rises. This effect is accompanied by stronger effort engagement and improvement in task performance. The findings support the motivational theories of mental effort and fatigue, showing that mental fatigue might serve as a signal of diminishing value of the ongoing task.

Experience transforms crossmodal object representations in the anterior temporal lobes.

Combining information from multiple senses is essential to object recognition, core to the ability to learn concepts, make new inferences, and generalize across distinct entities. Yet how the mind combines sensory input into coherent crossmodal representations - the crossmodal binding problem - remains poorly understood. Here, we applied multi-echo fMRI across a 4-day paradigm, in which participants learned three-dimensional crossmodal representations created from well-characterized unimodal visual shape and sound features. Our novel paradigm decoupled the learned crossmodal object representations from their baseline unimodal shapes and sounds, thus allowing us to track the emergence of crossmodal object representations as they were learned by healthy adults. Critically, we found that two anterior temporal lobe structures - temporal pole and perirhinal cortex - differentiated learned from non-learned crossmodal objects, even when controlling for the unimodal features that composed those objects. These results provide evidence for integrated crossmodal object representations in the anterior temporal lobes that were different from the representations for the unimodal features. Furthermore, we found that perirhinal cortex representations were by default biased toward visual shape, but this initial visual bias was attenuated by crossmodal learning. Thus, crossmodal learning transformed perirhinal representations such that they were no longer predominantly grounded in the visual modality, which may be a mechanism by which object concepts gain their abstraction.

Exacerbation of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) with heart involvement mimicking acute coronary syndrome.

A case of a 49-year-old male with exacerbation of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) with heart involvement mimicking acute coronary syndrome is presented. Institution of intensive immunosupresive treatment resulted in the improvement of clinical condition and systolic left ventricular function. Coronary angiography excluded atherosclerosis as a primary cause of heart damage.

Multiple Reprocessing of Conductive PLA 3D-Printing Filament: Rheology, Morphology, Thermal and Electrochemical Properties Assessment.

Additive manufacturing technologies are gaining more and more attention, resulting in the development or modification of 3D printing techniques and dedicated materials. On the other hand, economic and ecological aspects force the industry to develop material recycling strategies. In this work, the multiple reprocessing of a commercially available PLA conductive composite with carbon black filler, dedicated to 3D printing, was investigated. The effects of extrusion temperature (190 °C and 200 °C) and reprocessing steps (1-5 steps) on the rheology, morphology, thermal and electrochemical properties of the conductive PLA 3D-printing filament were evaluated. The results showed deterioration of the thermal stability and material strength, as well as the influence of reprocessing on the melting point, which increases after initial melting. The electronic conduction mechanism of the composite depends on the percolation paths and it is also affected by the multiple processing. The reversibility of the [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- redox process diminishes with a higher degradation level of the conductive PLA. Importantly, the material fluidity was too high after the multiple reprocessing, which should be considered and suitably corrected during CB-PLA application as a 3D-printed electrode material.

Recollection and prior knowledge recruit the left angular gyrus during recognition.

The human angular gyrus (AG) is implicated in recollection, or the ability to retrieve detailed memory content from a specific episode. A separate line of research examining the neural bases of more general mnemonic representations, extracted over multiple episodes, also highlights the AG as a core region of interest. To reconcile these separate views of AG function, the present fMRI experiment used a Remember-Know paradigm with famous (prior knowledge) and non-famous (no prior knowledge) faces to test whether AG activity could be modulated by both task-specific recollection and general prior knowledge within the same individuals. Increased BOLD activity in the left AG was observed during both recollection in the absence of prior knowledge (recollected > non-recollected or correctly rejected non-famous faces) and when prior knowledge was accessed in the absence of experiment-specific recollection (famous > non-famous correct rejections). This pattern was most prominent for the left AG as compared to the broader inferior parietal lobe. Recollection-related responses in the left AG increased with encoding duration and prior knowledge, despite prior knowledge being incidental to the recognition decision. Overall, the left AG appears sensitive to both task-specific recollection and the incidental access of general prior knowledge, thus broadening our notions of the kinds of mnemonic representations that drive activity in this region.

Temporal changes of hemostatic activity in patients hospitalized for COVID-19: a prospective observational study.

INTRODUCTION: Hemostatic abnormalities play an important role in the pathogenesis of COVID­19 and are considered determinants of the patients' outcomes. Less is known about the dynamics of these abnormalities in a short­term observation. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate hemostatic activity markers in patients hospitalized for COVID­19 depending on the severity of respiratory failure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a prospective observational study enrolling adult patients hospitalized for COVID­19 in a tertiary center in Poland, from January to May 2021. Blood samples were drawn upon admission and 28 days after the admission to measure the markers of coagulation, fibrinolysis, and endothelial dysfunction, and to evaluate whether there are significant differences between these 2 time points. All analyses were performed in the entire cohort and after stratification into 3 groups depending on the degree of respiratory support. RESULTS: We recruited 245 patients at the median age of 63 years (interquartile range, 52-69), among whom 158 (64.5%) were men. The analysis of hemostatic markers on admission revealed that hypercoagulability, hypofibrinolysis, and endothelial dysfunction are related to the degree of respiratory support. We found significant differences between the admission and 28­day follow­up in all markers except for plasminogen activity. Interestingly, the markers of endothelial dysfunction remained the highest in the advanced respiratory support group after 28 days, while differences in the other markers diminished. CONCLUSION: Hemostatic abnormalities are significantly attenuated within a month after a hospital admission due to COVID­19. The initially observed association between severity of the disease and hemostatic derangements persists only for the markers of endotheliopathy.