COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease of 2019) is an infectious disease outbreak later on declared as a pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2). It spreads very rapidly and can result in severe acute respiratory failure. The clinical studies have shown that advanced age and chronic diseases increase the risk of infection. However, influence of the blood groups on COVID-19 infection and its outcome remains to be confirmed. The aim of this study is to investigate whether there exists a relationship between the blood groups of the patients and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. 186 patients with PCR confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in this study. Age, gender, blood groups, comorbidities, need for intubation and intensive care unit follow up and mortalities of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. 1881 healthy individuals, who presented to the Hacettepe University Blood Bank served as the controls. The most frequently detected blood group was blood group A (57%) amongst the COVID-19 patients. This was followed by the blood group O (24.8%). The blood group types did not affect the clinical outcomes. Blood group A was statistically significantly more frequent among those infected with COVID-19 compared to controls (57% vs 38%, p <0.001; OR: 2.1). On the other hand, the frequency of blood group O was significantly lower in the COVID-19 patients, compared to the control group (24.8% vs 37.2%, p: 0.001; OR: 1.8). The results of the present study suggest that while the blood group A might have a role in increased susceptibility to the COVID-19 infection, the blood group O might be somewhat protective. However, once infected, blood group type does not seem to influence clinical outcome.

Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is an important complication that can be observed after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Acute GvHD (aGvHD) is seen after alloHSCT and the incidence of aGvHD is around 30%-50%. aGvHD prophylaxis is essential in patients undergoing allo-HSCT. Initial therapy for aGvHD is steroids. Prognosis is poor in aGvHD patients not responding to steroids. In this article, the pathobiology, clinical findings, prophylaxis, and treatment of aGvHD will be summarized.

Introduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread rapidly worldwide since December 2019. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a great affinity for the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor, which is an essential element of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). This study is aimed at assessing the impact of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphisms, on the susceptibility and clinical outcomes of the COVID-19 immunoinflammatory syndrome. Patients and Methods. A total of 112 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between 1 and 15 May 2020 were enrolled in the study. ACE gene allele frequencies were compared to the previously reported Turkish population comprised of 300 people. Results. The most common genotype in the patients and control group was DI with 53% and II with 42%, respectively. The difference in the presence of the D allele between the patient and control groups was statistically significant (67% vs. 42%, respectively, ). Severe pneumonia was observed more in patients with DI allele (31%) than DD (8%) and II (0%) ( ). The mortality rate, time to defervescence, and the hospitalization duration were not different between the genotype groups. Conclusion. Genotype DI of ACE I/D polymorphism is associated with the infectious rate particularly severe pneumonia in this study conducted in the Turkish population. Therefore, ACE D/I polymorphism could affect the clinical course of COVID-19.