To the Editor, No therapeutics has been proven effective for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). 1,2 China has explored important clinical trials on a host of possible effective treatment options including ozone therapy. We introduced our experience in treating two confirmed cases by ozone therapy-major autohemotherapy (MAH). 3 After the written informed consent was obtained, MAH was given to patients once daily for 7 consecutive days. Each time, 100 mL of venous blood was collected and mixed with O 3 gas at the 1:1 ratio of oxygen-ozone to blood volume, with the final concentration of oxygen-ozone being 20 μg/mL. The clinical study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (WDRY2020-K020). CASE 1 A male of 53-year-old was admitted to Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University on 20 February 2020 due to mild fever and dyspnea for 7 days, accompanied by headache, runny nose, fatigue, and loss of appetite. On admission, he presented a clear consciousness with a body temperature of 37.5℃. Chest computed tomography (CT) imaging on 19 February 2020 revealed multiple small patchy shadows, linear interstitial changes, and consolidation in both lungs. He was confirmed COVID-19 on 21 February 2020 Lymphopenia, elevated C-reactive protein and interleukin 6, mild hypoxemia were noted in laboratory tests.

In this study, we investigated the acute exacerbation and outcomes of COPD patients during the outbreak of COVID-19 and evaluated the prevalence and mortality of COPD patients with confirmed COVID-19. Methods: A prospectively recruited cohort of 489 COPD patients was retrospectively followed-up for their conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic from December 2019 to March 2020 in Hubei, China. In addition, the features of 821 discharged patients with confirmed COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Of the 489 followed-up enrolled COPD patients, 2 cases were diagnosed as confirmed COVID-19, and 97 cases had exacerbations, 32 cases of which were hospitalized, and 14 cases died. Compared with the 6-month follow-up results collected 1 year ago, in 307 cases of this cohort, the rates of exacerbations and hospitalization of the 489 COPD patients during the last 4 months decreased, while the mortality rate increased significantly (2.86% vs 0.65%, p=0.023). Of the 821 patients with COVID-19, 37 cases (4.5%) had pre-existing COPD. Of 180 confirmed deaths, 19 cases (10.6%) were combined with COPD. Compared to COVID-19 deaths without COPD, COVID-19 deaths with COPD had higher rates of coronary artery disease and/ or cerebrovascular diseases. Old age, low BMI and low parameters of lung function were risk factors of all-cause mortality for COVID-19 patients with pre-existing COPD. Conclusion: Our findings imply that acute exacerbations and hospitalizations of COPD patients were infrequent during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, COVID-19 patients with pre-existing COPD had a higher risk of all-cause mortality.

No abstract

Objective: To compare the performance of Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), sleep apnea clinical score (SACS), Berlin questionnaire (BQ), and STOP-BANG questionnaire (SBQ) in screening for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: A total of 431 patients were analyzed. All subjects completed lung function test, ESS, SACS, BQ, and SBQ survey and overnight polysomnography (PSG). According to lung function and PSG results, participants were divided into COPD with OSA group (OVS, AHI ≥5) and without OSA group (AHI <5). The value of ESS, SACS, BQ, and SBQ was compared in predicting OSA in patients with COPD by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve statistics. Results: Of the 431 subjects, there were 96 cases in COPD without OSA group, and 335 cases in OVS group including 183, 96, and 56 cases of COPD combined with mild, moderate or severe OSA. In predicting different degrees of severity of OSA in patients with COPD, the value of ESS was poor with all the values of area under the curve (AUC) < 0.7. SACS and BQ had moderate predictive value in screening for severe OSA with the value of AUC of 0.750, 0.735 respectively. However, the SBQ performed best in predicting various degrees of OSA. For screening mild OSA (AHI ≥5), the ROC statistics recommended the cutoff score of SBQ >2 was considered high risk of OSA; the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 92.8%, 40.6%, and 0.723 respectively, the odds ratio (OR) was 2.161. When AHI ≥15, AUC for SBQ was 0.737. In predicting severe OSA (AHI ≥30), the ROC curve showed cutoff point, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for SBQ was >4, 66.1%, 82.1%, and 0.824 respectively; the positive and negative likelihood ratio was 3.70, 0.41 separately, the OR was 2.977. Conclusion: SBQ performed better than ESS, SACS, and BQ in predicting OSA in patients with COPD.

The aim of this study was to explain "obesity paradox" in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by evaluating the effect of body mass index (BMI) on lung function in Chinese patients with COPD. Methods: A total of 1644 patients diagnosed with COPD were recruited from four Chinese tertiary hospitals and were divided into four groups including underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese according to BMI classification standard. The medical data of these patients were collected and used for the multiple linear regression analyses. Results: After adjustment for age, sex, educational level, economic status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, duration of COPD history, events of acute exacerbation in previous year, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and osteoporosis, BMI had a curvilinear correlation with the forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV 1) in patients with Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 1-2 grade (first-order coefficient β, 0.09; 95% CI, 0.03-0.16; second-order coefficient β, −0.002; 95% CI, −0.003-0.001; P<0.01). However, BMI had a positive correlation with FEV 1 in patients with GOLD 3-4 grade (β, 0.01; 95% CI, 0.008-0.017; P<0.01) when BMI was used as a quantitative variable. When BMI was used as a qualitative variable, only FEV 1 in overweight group with GOLD 1-2 grade was significantly higher than that of normal weight group (P<0.01). Interestingly, both overweight and obese groups had higher FEV 1 in GOLD 3-4 grade compared with normal weight group (β, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02-0.11; β, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.04-0.18; P<0.01). The effect of BMI on predicted percentage of FEV 1 (FEV 1 %) was similar to that of FEV 1 in different GOLD grades. Conclusion: Obesity only had a protective effect on lung function in COPD patients with GOLD 3-4 grade rather than GOLD 1-2 grade.

Late-onset pacemaker-related pleural effusions (PEs) are rare and are often misdiagnosed with other entities. Our study aimed to detail the clinical features and management of PEs long after pacemaker insertion.We conducted a review of 6 consecutive elderly patients with PEs, who had undergone a new pacemaker insertion from September 2014 to January 2017. Also, the clinical characteristics and therapeutic courses of PEs were summarized.Two cases involved fluids after the first implantations, with pacing durations of 3 and 7 months. Two other cases developed PEs 3 or 4 months after the first replacement, with pacing durations of 6 and 11 years. Another 2 cases developed PEs 3 or 5 months following the second replacement, with total pacing durations of 16 and 18 years, respectively. The average interval was 4.17 months for the 6 cases from the time of the new pacemaker insertion to the occurrence of PEs. During the course, they had to be hospitalized repeatedly for thoracenteses because conventional treatments had only short-term effects. After the pacing settings were adjusted, PEs in all cases disappeared gradually. No patients were readmitted for PEs during the median follow-up period of 13 months.For elderly patients following implantation of a new pacemaker, PEs should be considered due to improper pacing settings, and corresponding adjustments to the device should be made.

No abstract

No abstract