What Open-Lung Biopsy Teaches Us about ARDS in COVID-19 Patients: Mechanisms, Pathology, and Therapeutic Implications

Table 1

Clinical, radiological, and microbiological characteristics of patients and treatment received during ICU stay.

	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3
Age (years)	72	68	59
Gender	Male	Male	Male
Known comorbidities	Hypertension	Hypertension	Hypertension
	Hyperthyroidism
	Benign hypertrophy of the prostate		Dyslipidemia
Symptoms	Fever 38.7°C	Fever 38.9°C	Fever 38.5°C
	Dry cough	Dry cough	Dry cough
	Shortness of breath	Shortness of breath	Anosmia
	Thoracic pain	Fatigue
Symptom duration before admission (days)	13	7	10
Admission to death (days)	15	5	9
Physical examination in admission
	BP: 110/60 mmHg
	Blood sugar: 1.44 g/L	Blood sugar: 1.7 g/L	Blood sugar: 3.5 g/L
	Thoracic CT scan	Ground glass
		Blood culture			Multiresistant	Sterile	Sterile
Acinetobacter baumannii
Gram-positive bacteria sensitive to colistin (catheter related infection)
Duration of ventilator management (days)
	Treatment	Hydroxychloroquine
Antibiotics
Therapeutic dose of LMWH
Acetylsalicylic acid
Methylprednisolone
Zinc
Vitamin C
Acetaminophen
Carbimazole
Tocilizumab
Blood type	O+	A+	A+
Microbiology (lung tissue and pleural fluid)	Negative	Negative	Negative
SARS-CoV-2 on pleural fluid	Negative	Positive	Positive
SARS-CoV-2 on lung biopsy	Negative	Positive	Positive

RR: respiratory rate; HR: heart rate; SpO₂: pulsed oxygenation saturation; BP: blood pressure; CPAP: continuous positive airway pressure; IV: invasive ventilation.