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Introduction:To investigate the values of procalcitonin (PCT) and laboratory parameters in differentiating tuberculosis (TB) pneumonia from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).Methods:Between 01.01.2018 and 01.01.2020, 4,133 patients diagnosed with CAP or TB pneumonia in a reference hospital for chest diseases and TB were retrospectively screened. Patients with a history of close contact with someone with TB, night sweats, weight loss, or cavitary infiltration that may be typical for TB in the chest X-ray were evaluated clinically and radiologically as high TB suspects and were excluded from the study. Demographic characteristics, comorbidities, medications, admission complaints, radiological findings, microbiology results, and laboratory parameters were recorded. CURB-65 and pneumonia severity index scores were calculated. Patients were grouped as TB (n=70) and CAP (n=506) based on the final diagnosis. The parameters of the two groups were compared.Results:The mean age of 576 patients was 55, and 423 (73%) were male. While sodium (Na) [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.716-0.914, p=0.001], blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (95% CI: 0.910-0.986, p=0.008), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (95% CI: 0.913-0.998, p=0.043) and oxygen saturation (95% CI: 1.007-1.268, p=0.037) were found as independent biomarkers for differentiating TB and CAP, PCT had no significant influence on the differential diagnosis.Conclusion:Prompt differential diagnosis between TB and CAP is important for public health in endemic TB areas. We recommend the evaluation of Na, ALT, and BUN for this purpose.

Introduction:Proinflammatory cytokines, produced as an immune response in severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 infection, activate the coagulation cascade as well. In this study, we investigated the difference in the clinical course of patients who had been already using anti-thrombotic therapy before coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) for any reason compared to the group who had not.Methods:In this retrospective, multicenter study; patients who were hospitalized between March 11 and July 1, 2020 were divided into two main groups as who had been on anti-thrombotic therapy for any indication use previously at the time of admission or who had not been on anti-thrombotic therapy at the time of admission, and their selected clinical parameters were compared.Results:After analyzing the study population of 124 patients with a homogeneous distribution in terms of age and gender, the comparison of anti-thrombotic users and non-users showed no significant difference in hospitalization. There was a statistically significant decrease in mechanical ventilation apply rate, intensive care unit duration and mortality rate between the group using anti-thrombotic compared to the group not using it (p

Introduction:Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a disease with serious mortality and morbidity. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are important. A PE is a process accompanied by inflammation. Therefore, our study was designed to examine the relationship between hemogram parameters, which are easily accessible and indicative of inflammation, and late mortality from PE.Methods:Two hundred and two patients who were hospitalized in our hospital between January 1, 2017 and July 1, 2020 and who were diagnosed with pulmonary angio computed tomography were included. Demographic and clinical data, laboratory, radiology and echocardiography results of the patients were analyzed retrospectively from the hospital information system.Results:Seventy-eight of 202 patients included in the study were male (38.6%), 124 females (61.4%), mean age was 58.27±16.26 years. According to the results of univariate Cox regression analysis, age [hazard ratio (HR): 1,058, p=0.001], D-dimer (HR: 1,057, p=0.015), presence of malignancy (HR: 6,274, p=0.001), trauma history ( HR: 2,931, p=0.039), long travel history (HR: 0.163, p=0.003), C-reactive protein (HR: 1,004, p=0.021), PE severity index (HR: 1,033, p=0.001), EF (HR: 0.944 , p=0.001), red-cell distribution width (HR: 1,125, p=0.001), lymphocyte (HR: 0.999, p=0.001), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) (HR: 1.013, p=0.001) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (HR: 1,017, p=0.001) significantly and it was associated with mortality.Conclusion:Because of our study, we determined that NLR and PLR can be used as 12-month prognostic factors in patients with acute PE.