Abstract
BACKGROUND: The most prevalent clinical sign for COVID-19 patients are respiratory diseases such that the criteria for clinical screening and care of the patients in most countries, including Iran, are based on the three primary symptoms, i.e., fever, cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effect of continuous positive airway pressure and bi-level positive airway pressure on hemodynamic parameters in COVID-19 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a clinical trial conducted on 46 COVID-19 patients admitted to Imam Hassan Hospital in Bojnourd in 2022. This study included patients selected through convenient sampling and then through Permuted block randomization, who were assigned to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), and Bi-Level Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) groups. Patients were compared in terms of the severity of their COVID-19 disease in both groups and were divided equally in each disease severity. After determining their type of respiratory aid use, the patient's hemodynamic status (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse, arterial oxygen saturation, and temperature) was examined beforehand, immediately after 1 hour, 6 hours, and then daily up to 3 days of CPAP/BiPAP at a specific time. Data collection tools were demographic data questionnaires and information on patients' diseases. A checklist was also used to record the main variables of the research. The collected data were put into SPSS software version 19. To analyze the data, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was used to evaluate the normality of quantitative variables. As a result, it was found that the data had a normal distribution. Repeated measures of ANOVA and independent t-tests were employed to compare quantitative variables in the two groups at different times. In this study, a significance level of 0.05 was considered. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, and temperature in the two groups of patients at 1 day, 2 days, and 3 days after use (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results displayed better performance of CPAP than BiPAP in the parameters of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, and temperature in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, in necessary cases, it is recommended to use a CPAP mask.