Background: Inlate 2019, a new coronavirus disease was detected in Wuhan, China and called COVID-19. There are so many unknown factors about the virus. Iron metabolism is one of the topics have to be investigated for the development of therapeutic strategies for COVID-19. The aim of this study is to assess sequential changes in traditional biochemical iron status indicators during COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: A case-control study. Case group was defined as pneumonia with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 and the control group consisted of patients with non-COVID-19 pneumonia. Biomarkers of anemia and iron metabolism, CRP, procalcitonin were analyzed. Demographic features, CT findings, SpO2, development of ARDS, ICU admission, duration of hospitalization, discharge status (event free survival or death) were evaluated. Results: 205 hospitalized patients with pneumonia were analyzed retrospectively. COVID-19 group was significantly younger than control group. 23 of 106 patients had critical COVID-19 infection. Comorbidity frequency and mortality rate of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were significantly higher. Hb, RET-He, iron, TSAT, CRP, PCT and SpO2 were significantly lower. Hb, RET-He, iron, TSAT levels significantly correlated to lung aeration loss, hospitalization day and inflamatory markers in COVID-19 pneumonia. Conclusion: The patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had iron deficiency anemia even they were young. Iron deficiency may effect the lung aeration loss related to paranchimal infiltrations of COVID-19 and mortality of the patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Our data indicates that iron deficiency is associated with longer hospital stays, lower oxygenation, higher CRP and procalsitonin.

Background: EBUS-TBNA is a frequently used diagnostic method for mediastinal/hilar lymphadenopathies and masses. This procedure is performed with intravenous sedation (IVS). During IVS, patients often develop hypoxemia and nasal oxygen delivery is insufficient in some patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of oxygen application with nCPAP on hypoxemia during EBUS-TBNA. Methods: Patients with EBUS-TBNA indication who did not have any serious heart-lung disease were randomly divided into two groups. One group received only oxygen and the other group received nCPAP+oxygen. Patient characteristics, arterial oxygen saturations, anesthetic agents, CPAP pressures, oxygen concentrations and processing times were recorded during the procedure. Practitioner satisfaction was evaluated at the end. Results: 29 nCPAP+oxygen, 31 oxygen patients were included in the study. There were no significant differences in terms of age, sex, smoking history and presence of additional diseases in two groups. Neck circumference, BMI and STOP BANG questionnaire values were similar. Desaturation time was significantly longer in oxygen group than nCPAP+oxygen group (316±390 sec, 12±118 sec, respectively, p=0,019). Snoring was detected during the procedure in 22 patients in the oxygen group and in 11 patients in the nCPAP group (p=0,01). There were no serious complications in both groups. Practitioner satisfaction was higher in the nCPAP group but this was not statistically significant (p=0,052). Conclusions: Oxygen application by nCPAP during EBUS-TBNA under IVS, significantly reduces desaturation time. Oxygen delivery with nCPAP seems to be a better choice especially for the patients with high Mallampati index.