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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major health concern and can be devastating, especially for the elderly. It causes a systemic inflammatory response, involving dysregulation and misexpression of many inflammatory cytokines.Objectives: To assess the cytokine profile in COVID-19 patients and detect its relation with disease severity. Patients and methods:This study included 50 COVID-19 patients confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), of whom 20 with severe pneumonia, 20 with moderate and 10 with mild disease, and 50 healthy control. Quantitative ELISA tests were performed for tumour necrosis factor alfa (TNF-α) and intercellular adhesion molecule1 (ICAM-1).Results: Level of ICAM-1 is higher in cases of COVID-19 than healthy controls (median for cases = 420 ng/ml). Also TNF-α level is higher in cases with a median of 165 both levels were higher in CORADS 6 and positively correlated with CT findings. Conclusion:Patients with severe COVID-19 might have a cytokine storm syndrome and increased expression of endothelial cell adhesion molecules as ICAM-1, which is related to COVID-19 and disease severity and may contribute to coagulation dysfunction. Levels of ICAM 1 were associated with more severe CT findings and longer hospital stay, also ICAM 1 and TNF can be used as diagnostic measures as they have a higher sensitivity specificity and predictive values.

Background Asthma is still considered a major chronic respiratory disease that affects a large number in the world. The association between COVID-19 infection and asthma was studied in different ways focusing on hospital-admitted patients. This study aimed to assess the outcome of patients with asthma and/or COVID infection in adults attending outpatient pulmonary clinic over three successive months from clinical and laboratory point of view. Patients and methods The current study was a retrospective observational study involving 898 patients attending the outpatient pulmonary clinic of a Saudi Arabian private hospital over three successive months from the 1st of December 2020 to the end of February 2021. Patients were divided into three groups: group 1—COVID-19 infected with asthma (312); group 2—COVID-19 infected with no asthma (286); and group 3—COVID-19 non-infected with asthma (300). Results and conclusions Results showed the best patient’s outcome was seen in asthmatic patients without COVID-19 infection followed by asthmatic patient with COVID-19 infection. There was a significant statistical difference in eosinophil count between COVID-19-infected patients with asthma and COVID-19 infected without asthma. Also, it was shown that the most common cause of hospitalization in asthmatic patients with COVID-19 infection was pneumonia followed by gastroenteritis and not an asthma exacerbation.

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Background CT has been used on a massive scale to help identify and investigate suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 pneumonia. This study aimed to assess the prognostic significance of the chest findings MSCT of COVID-19 patients and to determine if prognosis can rely on the initial CT imaging. Methods The study design was retrospective cohort study. It was carried out on 300 patients presented to the chest outpatient clinics in Benha University hospitals and El Abbassia Chest Hospital with clinical picture suggestive of COVID-19 infection. The CT finding were then compared to the short-term clinical outcome of the patients (1–3 weeks), acquired from the hospital patient data archive. According to the progression of the respiratory symptoms (including dyspnea, respiratory rate, and O2 saturation), the short-term clinical outcome of the patients was classified into 4 groups: group A (mild cases), group B (moderate cases), group C (severe cases), and group D (fatality cases). Results Consolidations, septal thickening, crazy paving, and fibrotic bands were significantly higher in groups C and D than group A and B (P-value < 0.001 for all variants). Nodules show statistically significant higher incidence in groups A and B than group C and D (P-value < 0.001). The CT severity score shows statistically significant increase with the poor short-term clinical outcomes (groups C and D) (P-value < 0.001). Conclusion CT chest is a good radiological marker that can help in predicting short-term clinical outcome in COVID-19 patient. Higher CT severity scores are predictors of poorer clinical prognosis.

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