New research called for a greater focus on earlier diagnosis of COVID-19 among patients with asthma and other respiratory diseases.
The team of investigators, led by Rania M. Sarhan, PhD, spoke of the prevalence of symptom screenings for patients, as COVID-19 and respiratory diseases often shared the same symptoms such as fever, pneumonia, lung infection and difficulty breathing.
Sarhan and colleagues collected data from 522 patients with either allergic rhinitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and/or COVID-19. Participants ranged from 18-60 years old, and roughly 60% (n = 312) patients were women.
The participants were divided into 4 groups: asthmatic patients, asthmatic patients with allergic rhinitis, COPD patients, and COVID-19 patients. The participants were further divided into 3 subdivisions of COVID-19 patients only, COVID-19 patients with COPD, and COVID-19 patients with asthma.
The data were collected from Beni-Suef University Hospital and Hospital of Chest Diseases in Beni-Suef, and analyzed for demographic and clinical features.
The prevalence of asthma and COPD in COVID-19 patients were nearly equal, totaling 30.7% and 35.1% respectively. However, patients with COVID-19 showed significant scarification as opposed to patients without the disease. According to the study, chest CT scans conducted on patients with COVID-19 showed bilateral ground-glass opacity (GGO) with abnormal findings.
