Platypnea-orthodeoxia in a patient with severe COVID-19 pneumonia

COVID-19 pneumonia has a significant case fatality rate and no effective antiviral drugs are available even after 9 months of the pandemic. The spectrum of COVID-19 disease ranges from asymptomatic cases to severe ARDS with myriad manifestations. Here we report a case of a male patient with severe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Komal Singh, Harshit Kadnur, Animesh Ray, Puneet Khanna, Akhil Singh, Naveet Wig, Anjan Trikha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PAGEPress Publications 2020-12-01
Series:Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease
Subjects:
POS
Online Access:https://monaldi-archives.org/index.php/macd/article/view/1609
Description
Summary:COVID-19 pneumonia has a significant case fatality rate and no effective antiviral drugs are available even after 9 months of the pandemic. The spectrum of COVID-19 disease ranges from asymptomatic cases to severe ARDS with myriad manifestations. Here we report a case of a male patient with severe COVID-19 ARDS who improved after receiving standard therapy but again ‘deteriorated’ after being stepped down to ward. He complained of worsening shortness of breath and hypoxemia which was found to be mainly positional. After ruling out other causes, he was labeled as a case of platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome due to underlying lung involvement.  It is important to be aware of this condition in the context of COVID-19 which can be easily diagnosed bedside with pulse oximetry
ISSN:1122-0643
2532-5264