Krebs von den Lungen-6, a promising marker in evaluating the severity of interstitial lung disease in Egyptian rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) is one of the mucins associated with interstitial lung disease. We aimed to assess the value of KL-6 as a marker for detecting the presence of interstitial lung disease in Egyptian rheumatoid arthritis patients and to evaluate its ability to assess severity in different grades of interstitial lung disease. The study included 89 rheumatoid arthritis patients; 64 patients with interstitial lung disease and 25 patients without interstitial lung disease.

The COVID-19 Cytokine Storm; What We Know So Far.

COVID-19 is a rapidly spreading global threat that has been declared as a pandemic by the WHO. COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets or direct contact and infects the respiratory tract resulting in pneumonia in most of the cases and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in about 15 % of the cases. Mortality in COVID-19 patients has been linked to the presence of the so-called "cytokine storm" induced by the virus.