Covid-19 disease, as a dangerous global pandemic, has led to high morbidity and mortality in all countries. There is a lot of evidence for the possible role of oxidative stress in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). In the current study, we aimed to measure the levels of glutathione (GSH), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and total oxidant status (TOS) in the serum of patients with Covid-19. A total of 96 individuals with and without Covid-19 were enrolled and divided into four groups, including hospitalized group in non-intensive care units (non-ICU) (n=35), hospitalized group in intensive care units with endotracheal intubation (EI) (ICU with EI) (n=19), hospitalized group in intensive care units without endotracheal intubation (ICU without EI) (n=24), and healthy people without Covid-19 disease as our control group (n=18).The present study revealed that the TOS level was significantly lower in the group of control (P = 0.001), and level of (GSH) remarkably increased in the patients' groups (P < 0.001). TAC activity in non-ICU group of patients had no significant difference in comparison with control group. However, in hospitalized patients' groups in ICU with and without EI this activity was significantly different from control group (P<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the levels of TOS, GSH, and TAC with blood Oxygen saturation (SpO2), fever, duration of hospitalization, and the prognosis of this disease (P<0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) (CI, 95%) of TOS, TAC and GSH-C to predict death among patients were respectively 0.907 (0.841, 0.973), 0.735 (0.626, 0.843) and 0.820 (0.725, 0.914). ROC curve analysis showed that TOS, TAC and GSH-C have the potential specificity and sensitivity to distinguish between alive and dead patients. We found that elevated levels of oxidative stress and reduction of antioxidant indices can aggravate disease’s severity in hospitalized patients with Covid-19. Therefore, it can be suggested to apply antioxidant agents as one of the effective therapeutic strategies in these groups.

Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials registration number: IRCT201303209014N16.

Introduction In this study we are aiming to evaluate the changes of serum serotonin and its association with pain in patients suffering from chronic low back pain before and after lumbar discectomy surgery. Patients and Methods A prospective study was performed on the patients referring to the outpatient clinic in Besat hospital, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran, during 2016. A 2 mL fasting blood sample was collected from each patient at preoperative day 1 and postoperative day 14 and they were measured for level of serum serotonin. Besides, all patients were asked for severity of their low back pain in preoperative day 1 and postoperative day 14 and scored their pain from zero to ten using a Numerical Rating Scale. Results Forty patients with the mean age of 47 ± 13 yrs/old (range 25–77) including 15 (37.5%) males were enrolled into the study. The overall mean score of preoperative pain was significantly decreased from 7.4 ± 2.18 (range 4–10) to the postoperative pain score 3.87 ± 2.92 (range 0–10) (P < .001). The overall levels of pre- and postoperative serum serotonin were 3.37 ± 1.27 (range 1.1–6.4) and 3.58 ± 1.32 (range .94–7.1) ng/mL, respectively, with no significant difference (P = .09). The levels of pre- and postoperative serum serotonin were significantly higher in males and patients older than 50 yrs/old compared to the females and patients younger than 50 yrs/old, respectively (P = .03 and .005, respectively). A significant inverse correlation between the postoperative levels of pain and serum serotonin was observed (r = -.36 and P = .02). Conclusion A negative medium strength linear relationship may exist between the postoperative serum serotonin and low back pain.

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