Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has not been precisely known in bronchoscopy procedures. We have designed a cabinet device called Ankara University Bronchoscopy Cabinet (Aubrocab®) to protect healthcare. In this study, we aimed to evaluate preventing effect of Aubrocab® on aerosol spreading by measuring the number of particles in the bronchoscopy suite. Methods: The patients were categorized into two groups as those who underwent bronchoscopy with and without Aubrocab®. We measured PM0.5 level just before and after the bronchoscopy procedure in the bronchoscopy suite. Results: A total of 82 patients, 62 of whom underwent bronchoscopy with Aubrocab®, were enrolled the study. The PM 0.5 level measured before bronchoscopy were similar in both groups, whereas the PM0.5 level measured just after bronchoscopy was significantly lower in the Aubrocab® group (42,603±8,632 vs 50,377±10,487, p=0.001). The analyses showed that the percent particle change (50.76 ± 19.91% vs 67.15 ± 24.24%, p=0.003) and the difference of the particle numbers between pre and post-procedure (13,638±4,292 and 19,501±5,891, p<0.001) were significantly lower in the Aubrocab® group. Conclusion: Our institution developed a barrier device named Aubrocab® which was shown to prevent excessive aerosol release in addition to routine precautions during bronchoscopy procedures.

Introduction: Guidelines recommend using a pulse oximeter rather than arterial blood gas (ABG) for COVID-19 patients. However, significant differences can be observed between oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry (SpO2) and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) in some clinical conditions. We aimed to assess the reliability of pulse oximeter in patients with COVID-19 Methods: We retrospectively reviewed ABG analyses and SpO2 levels measured simultaneously with ABG in patients hospitalized in COVID-19 wards. Results: We categorized total 117 patients into two groups; in whom the difference between SpO2 and SaO2 was 4% (acceptable difference) and >4% (large difference). Large difference group exhibited higher neutrophil count, C-reactive protein, ferritin, fibrinogen, D-dimer and lower lymphocyte count. Multivariate analyses revealed that increased fibrinogen, increased ferritin and decreased lymphocyte count were independent risk factors for large difference between SpO2 and SaO2. The total study group demonstrated the negative bias of 4.02% with the limits of agreement of −9.22% to 1.17%. The bias became significantly higher in patients with higher ferritin, fibrinogen levels and lower lymphocyte count. Conclusion: Pulse oximeters may not be sufficient to assess actual oxygen saturation especially in COVID-19 patients with high ferritin and fibrinogen levels and low lymphocyte count low SpO2 measurements.