We aimed to evaluate the predictive ability of hematological and inflammatory parameters for mortality in COVID-19 patients. This was a retrospective study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients over 18 years old between March 2020 and May 2020. Patients were diagnosed to have COVID-19 based either on chest computed tomography findings or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test. Age, gender, chronic medical conditions, and laboratory values including hemogram parameters (white blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, D-dimer, ferritin, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and the international normalized ratio were recorded. Overall, we included 302 patients. Of these, 148 patients were male; the male to female ratio was 0.961. The mean age of the entire study cohort was 57.1 ± 17.6 years. The most common chronic medical condition was hypertension (38.1%). Half of the patients received low molecular weight heparin. During the study period, 25 patients (8.2%) died. White blood cell count and neutrophil count were significantly higher, whereas lymphocyte count was significantly lower in the deceased patients. The median neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was 11.6 in the deceased patients, it was significantly higher than the surviving patients ( p < 0.001). The values of C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, D-dimer, and ferritin were significantly higher among the deceased patients. Prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and the international normalized ratio were significantly longer in the deceased group compared with the surviving group. Logistic regression analysis showed age > 65 years, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, activated partial thromboplastin time, and hypertension as the independent predictors of mortality. The rate of abnormal inflammatory and hematologic-coagulation parameters increased with the COVID-19 severity. Age > 65 years, hypertension, activated partial thromboplastin time and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio were the independent predictors of mortality.

We aimed to investigate the effects of Sildenafil on pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) as well as forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) and serum brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with erectile dysfunction (ED). This was a prospective non-controlled interventional study that recruited COPD patients with ED between the ages of 49 and 79. International Index of Erectile Dysfunction Form (IIEF-5) was used for the evaluation of ED. Patients who had pulmonary artery systolic pressure &#62;50 mmHg were included in the study. Single-dose Sildenafil 100 mg was administered orally to the patients. Before and after the drug ingestion, spirometry and echocardiographic measurements were performed, and serum BNP levels were measured as well. Forty-five male COPD patients with ED were included. Both percent predicted, and absolute FEV1 values increased significantly after the Sildenafil administration compared with baseline values (p&#60;0.01). Similarly, the FEV1/FVC ratio also increased significantly with the Sildenafil administration compared to baseline values (p&#60;0.01). Pulmonary artery systolic pressure significantly decreased from its baseline value with Sildenafil administration (p&#60;0.01). Serum BNP values significantly reduced with Sildenafil administration compared to the pre-treatment values (p&#60;0.01). This is the first study conducted in COPD patients with erectile dysfunction who had also pulmonary hypertension. The single-dose Sildenafil administration reduced PASP and serum BNP levels significantly. For the first time in the literature, we showed that the spirometric pulmonary function tests, namely FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio, improved significantly with the Sildenafil administration.