Background: 142patients were examined in post covid clinic in Pulmonary Department of General Hospital G.Papanikolaou, Thessaloniki, Greece. 62patients were examined 1 month after disease, 32patients after 3months, 30patients after 6months and 18patients 1year after disease. Aims: the main purpose of the study is to examine if hospitalized patients had defferent long covid symptoms than non-hospitalized patients. Secondary aim is the existance of correlation of long covid symptoms with gender and age Methods: a questionnaire of 25 long covid symptoms was given to each patient, according to the international literature. The results were processed with SPSS statistical programme. 110patients responded to the questionnaires Results: 84 patients(76.4%) of 110 had been hospitalized during covid19 disease, while 26(23.6%) had not Most frequent long covid symptoms of 84 hospitalized patients were: fatigue (65.5%-55patients), generalized weakness (58.3%-49patients), shortness of breath (31%-26patients), tachycardia (25%-21patients) Most frequent long covid symptoms of 26 non-hospitalized patients were:fatigue (53.8%-14patients), cough and weakness (42.3%-11patients), tachycardia (23,1%-6patients), myalgia (30.8%-8patients), shortness of breath, difficulty concentraning and depression (26.9%-7patients) Secondary outcomes: no correlation was found between gender or age and long covid symptoms Conclusion: non-hospitalized patients appears the same symptoms as hospitalized patients even 1year after disease. An important limitation of the study is the small number of the sample of non-hospitalized patients. A larger population is needed to prove that long covid syndrome is here and is not be confused with post intensive care syndrome
1 October 2022 in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Background: Chronic respiratory conditions are a prominent public health issue and thus, building a patient registry might facilitate both policy decision making and improvement of clinical management processes. Hellenic Registry of patients with Home Mechanical Ventilation (HR-HMV) was initiated in 2017 and a web-based platform is used to support patient data collection. Eighteen hospital departments (including sleep labs) across Greece participate in this initiative, focusing on recording data for both children and adult patients supported by mechanical ventilation at home, including patients with Sleep Apnea–Hypopnea Syndrome (SAHS) under Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) therapy. Methods: The HR-HMV initiative ultimately aims to provide a database for evidence-based care and policy making in this specific domain. To this end, a web information system was developed and data were manually collected by clinics and hospital departments. Legal and privacy issues (such as General Data Protection Rule compliance and technical information security measures) have been considered while designing the web application. Based on the collected data, an exploratory statistical report of SAHS patients in Greece is presented. Results: Eleven out of the eighteen participating clinics and hospital departments have contributed with data by the time of the current study. More than 5000 adult and children patient records have been collected so far, the vast majority of which (i.e., 4900 patients) diagnosed with SAHS. Conclusion: The development and maintenance of patient registries is a valuable tool for policy decision making, observational/epidemiological research and beyond (e.g., health technology assessment procedures). However, as all data collection and processing approaches, registries are also related with potential biases. Along these lines, strengths and limitations must be considered when interpreting the collected data, and continuous validation of the collected clinical data per se should be emphasized. Especially for Greece, where the lack of national registries is eminent, we argue that HR-HMV could be a useful tool for the development and the update of related policies regarding the healthcare services for patients with home mechanical ventilation support and SAHS patients, which could be useful for related initiatives at a European level as well.
The management of resistant tuberculosis (tb) can be extremely difficult, especially in case of novel unpredicted complications. In this report, we present a case of a 48-year-old patient with pre-extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tb who received a treatment regimen including pretomanid, bedaquiline, linezolid, cycloserine, and amikacin and died due to myocarditis. Acquired resistance to first- and second-line drugs developed due to previous poor adherence to medication. The clinical presentation of the patient, along with her initial ultrasonographical, electrocardiogram (ECG), and laboratory examinations, were typical for acute myocarditis; however, the patient was considered unstable, and further investigations, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), pericardiocentesis, and endomyocardial biopsy were not performed. To our knowledge, this is the first case of myocarditis in such a patient, the clinical features of which raised a high suspicion of drug induction that could be attributed to the treatment regimen that was administered. Clinicians who manage cases of drug-resistant tb should be aware of this newly reported, potentially lethal, adverse event.
Management of resistant Tuberculosis (TB) can be extremely difficult, especially in case of novel unpredicted complications. In this report, we present a case of a 48-year-old patient with pre-extensive-drug-resistant-(XDR)-TB who received a treatment regimen including Pretomanid, Bedaquiline, Linezolid, Cycloserine and Amikacin and died due to myocarditis. Acquired resistance to first- and second-line drugs developed due to previous poor adherence to medication. The clinical presentation of the patient, along with her initial ultrasonographical, electrocardiogram (ECG) and laboratory examinations, were typical for acute myocarditis, however, the patient was considered unstable and further investigation with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), pericardiocentesis and endomyocardial biopsy were not performed. To our knowledge, this is the first case of myocarditis in such a patient, the clinical features of which set a high suspicion of drug-induction that could be attributed to the treatment regimen that was administered. Clinicians who manage cases of drug-resistant TB should be aware of this, newly reported, potentially lethal, adverse event.