مهرانگیز غفاری

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a type of obstructive pulmonary disease that is identified by chronic narrowing of the airways. This disease worsens over time, and the main symptoms of this disease include shortness of breath, cough, and phlegm. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between COPD disease severity and inflammatory markers erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in hospitalized patients.

After the admission of patients diagnosed with COPD into this descriptive-analytical study, a complete medical history was taken during their hospitalization. Necessary variables were collected, including current or previous cigarette or opium use and duration of exposure to fossil fuels. Especially in those who cook at home, ESR and CRP samples were taken from them in addition to routine tests, and the length of hospital stay was recorded in addition to common treatments. After collecting the data, they were recorded in SPSS V22 software and analyzed using descriptive statistics (prevalence, mean, and standard deviation) and using the Chi-square, Fisher's exact, independent t, and Mann-Whitney tests. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the accuracy of the prediction of inflammatory markers in the outcome and severity of the disease. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

In this study, it was observed that the average scores of ESR and CRP of people with COPD were 54.68 and 1.50, respectively. The average ESR was 26.46 in people with mild COPD, 54.60 in people with moderate COPD, and 110.62 in people with severe COPD, and this difference was statistically significant (P=0.0001). The average CRP was 0.61 in people with mild COPD, 1.75 in people with moderate COPD, and 2.86 in people with severe COPD, which was statistically significant (P=0.0001).

The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between ESR and CRP with the outcome of COPD, and a significant relationship was observed between ESR and CRP and the severity of COPD disease.

Application of plants and their compounds has long been significant in treating diseases mainly due to their natural potential and lower side effects than chemical drugs and presence of alkaloids, and polyphenols in their extract. Despite research carried out on the properties of such plants and popularity of blood diseases, few studies have been done on its effects on blood cells, thus, it was attempted for the first time to evaluate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of the Pseudium guava leaf on blood cells in rats.

After extracting the leaves of guava plant, 40 adult male rats were divided into four groups. Which included control (cases with no treatment during the study) and experimental groups (cases receivied of hydroalcoholic extract of Psidium guava leaf, in different doses daily for 3 months). At the end of the test period, blood samples were counted.

The results of this study showed that the hydroalcoholic extract increased White Blood Cells and Red Blood Cells, but no significant change was observed. This increase in hematocrit was significant in the group receiving hydroalcoholic extract at a dose of 5000 mg/kg compared to the control group.

The results of the study had a positive effect on blood cells. Also, the lack of cytotoxicity with high doses of the extract of this plant means its safe use in traditional medicine.