Aim of the study:To evaluate the presence and severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients who recently recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 . Material and methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, patients who had recovered from COVID-19 were assessed between February and April 2021. The symptoms reported by patients were evaluated using a questionnaire developed by the authors based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to assess their depressive symptoms and anxiety. Results: Of the 102 patients, 45 (44%) were men, and the mean age (± standard deviation -SD) was 52 ±13 years. The mean time interval (±SD) between COVID-19 diagnosis and the examination was 56 ±18 days. Seventy-eight (76%) patients were treated at home, while 24 (23.5%) were hospitalized. Fatigue, cognitive impairment ("brain fog"), breathlessness, and cough were the most frequently reported complaints. Median scores of the BDI, state-anxiety (STAI 1) and trait-anxiety (STAI 2) were 7 (interquartile range, IQR = 10), 38 (IQR = 13), and 40.5 (IQR = 14), respectively. Mild depressive symptoms were observed in almost 30% of patients. Women scored significantly higher than men. Conclusions: Patients who have recently recovered from COVID-19 show increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, the intensity of which was more pronounced in women. From the clinical perspective, physicians should be aware of the anxiety and depressive symptoms of the post-COVID-19 syndrome. Depression and anxiety in patients recently recovered from coronavirus disease (COVID-19)Objawy depresji i lęku u pacjentów po przebyciu choroby koronawirusowej

Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesised in the vascular endothelium by nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) and is an important factor in the regulation of blood pressure. Impaired synthesis of NO due to mutations in the NOS3 gene is associated with hypertension. To date several allelic variants of the NOS3 gene have been identified and their possible linkage with hypertension investigated. We studied the distribution of genotypes and frequency of alleles of the G11T polymorphism in intron 23 of the NOS3 gene in patients with hypertension and in a control group of healthy individuals. The polymorphism was determined by PCR-RFLP analysis. The distribution of genotypes in the patients with hypertension and in the healthy individuals did not differ significantly from the values predicted from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the general population. No major differences in the distribution of the G11T polymorphism in the patients and healthy individuals were found (P > 0.05). Abbreviations: dNTP, deoxyribonucleotides; MSSCP, multitemperature single-stranded conformational polymorphism; RFLP, restriction fragments length polymorphism; VNTR, variation in the number of tandem repeats.