Mustafa Tanriverdi¹, Nevhiz Gündoğdu², Fatma Elif Yildırım³, Demet Ari⁴, Gülşen Özkan Tanriverdi⁵ and Hülya Çiçek⁶*

¹Department of Infectious Diseases, SANKO University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey
²Department of Pulmonary Medicine, SANKO University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey
³Department of Dermatology, SANKO University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey
⁴Department of Emergency Medicine, SANKO University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey
⁵Department of Anesthesia and Reanimation, Ministry of Health 25 Aralık State Hospital, Gaziantep, Turkey
⁶Department of Medical Biochemistry, Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey

*Corresponding Author: Hülya Çiçek, Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey.

Received: June 21, 2022 Published: July 21, 2022

Abstract

Background: Favipiravir, (6-fluoro-3-hydroxy-2-pyrazine carboxamide) is a broad-spectrum antiviral agent currently used in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19).

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the fluorescent staining of the nail surface of the patients who applied to the infectious diseases outpatient clinic of our hospital and were given favipiravir treatment with the diagnosis of COVID-19 by Wood's lamp examination.

Methods: Patients who applied to SANKO University Private Sani Konukoğlu Hospital Health Research and Application Center COVID-19 outpatient clinic were included in our study. All patients diagnosed with COVID-19 with SARS-CoV-2 PCR positivity by nasopharyngeal aspiration were given favipiravir 2*1600 mg on the first day and then 2*600 mg peroral for 4 days. Nail fluorescent staining status was evaluated again in patients with PCR (+) and healthy control group with PCR (-) at the time of admission and the end of the 1 week. Patients who were found to have staining in the first Woods lamp evaluation had an additional disease related to the nail base, were found to have the nail-related disease by the dermatology clinic, and did not want to participate in the study were excluded from the study.

Results: A total of 90 patients, 48 (53.3%) of whom were male, with a mean age of 52.9±6.5 years, were included in our study. The nail changes were evaluated with Woods light at the first admission of patients (n = 51) and the control group (n = 39). Patients (n = 51) and PCR (-) healthy control group (n = 39) were re-evaluated 1 week later. While nail base color change was detected in 45 (88.3%) of the patients who were given favipiravir, no color change was detected in the control group (n = 39, 100%) and 6 (11.7%) patients (p < 0.001). In our study, no difference was found between the groups with and without nail color change in terms of age, sex distribution, frequency of HT, DM, Asthma, and COPD (p > 0.05). The frequency of CAH was found to be higher in the patient group with nail color change (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: In our study, we found that fluorescent staining under UV light increased significantly in people who used favipiravir tablets. Our current study concluded to support the presence of drug-induced fluorescent staining in hair, skin, and nails, which was detected in other previously published studies.

Keywords: Fluorescence; COVID-19; Favipiravir; Nail; Ultraviolet Light

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Citation

Citation: Hülya Çiçek., et al. “The Color Change Observed in the Skin and Nails of COVID-19 Patients Before and After Favipiravir and Hydroxychloroquine Use". Acta Scientific Pharmacology 3.8 (2022): 07-11.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Hülya Çiçek., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.