Spontaneous pneumothorax in COVID-19: a single center experience

OBJECTIVE

The effect of pulmonary complications of COVID-19, such as pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, and subcutaneous emphysema, is still unclear. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between COVID-19 and spontaneous pneumothorax.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This study was conducted as a single-center retrospective study. Groups were assigned as study and control groups. The study group (n=120) included patients who were followed up in ICU and developed pneumothorax during their follow-up. The control group (n=120) included patients who did not develop a pneumothorax in ICU and who had been randomly selected using hospital records. Demographic findings, laboratory parameters, radiological findings, clinical management, patients' follow-up patterns, and survival status of the patients were recorded.

RESULTS

There was a significant relationship between gender, outcome, last hospitalization, general condition, first follow-up, intubation, uptake tomography, uptake rate, CO-RADS, and involvement variables between groups (p<0.05). In the survival analysis performed in the control and study groups, a significant difference was obtained between the averages of the two groups (LogRank=3.944, p<0.05). Intubation and mortality rates of the patients who developed pneumothorax during the patient follow-ups were significantly higher than the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who developed pneumothorax during intensive care follow-up had a higher hospital stay and intubation rate. The pneumothorax rate was also higher in follow-up methods such as noninvasive/HFO providing PEEP to the patients. The data in our study may help reducing mortality by shedding light on the early prevention and recognition of pneumothorax in critically ill patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

Protective effect of Coenzyme Q10 on oxidative ovarian and uterine damage induced by methotrexate in rats

Methotrexate (MTX) has toxic effects on the uterus and ovaries via oxidative stress. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an important component in electron transport in the mitochondria and an antioxidant in cellular metabolism through the inhibition of lipid peroxidation. The aim of this study was to investigate the preventive effects of CoQ10 on MTX-induced utero-ovarian damage and oxidative stress in rats.In this experimental study, 30 albino Wistar female rats were divided randomly into three groups. Once a day for a month, 10 mg/kg of CoQ10 was orally administered to the rats in the MTX+CoQ10 group, while the same volume of olive oil was administered orally to the other two groups. One hour thereafter, 20 mg/kg of MTX was injected intraperitoneally into the rats in the MTX and MTX+CoQ10 groups; the remaining group was the control. At the end of the month, biochemical and histopathologic examinations were performed on the extracted uteri and ovaries. In the uterine ovarian tissues of the animals in the MTX group, there was an increase in oxidative stress mediators and a decrease in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mediators, but these trends were reversed in the MTX+CoQ10 group, demonstrating the antioxidant effects of CoQ10. MTX leads to oxidative stress-related ovarian and uterine injury, and CoQ10 may be useful for protecting ovarian and uterine tissue from such injury.