A pilot study to evaluate the changes in venous blood gas parameters and hypoxia biomarkers in health care workers using different kinds of masks

BACKGROUND: The study is aimed to investigate the metabolic alterations and changes in biochemical parameters associated with extended mask. METHODS: It was a prospective comparative study conducted on 129 participants comprised of 37 healthy controls and 92 health care workers using different kind of masks like, cloth mask, surgical masks and N95-FFR/PPE. Two samples on day-1 and day-10 were collected for analysis of blood gas parameters, serum hypoxia-inducible factor-α (HIF-α), and erythropoietin (EPO). RESULTS: Oxygen saturation percentage (sO(2)) of 72.68 (P = 0.033) was significantly low, whereas, Na(+) (P = 0.05) and Ca(2+) (P < 0.001) were raised in exposed individuals than the healthy controls. The serum HIF-α level of 3.26 ng/mL, was considerable higher in the exposed individuals than controls (P = 0.001). pO(2) and sO(2) were the lowest and HIF-α and EPO were raised in N95-FFR/PPE of all mask users (P < 0.01). A significant difference was evidenced for pCO(2), pH, Na(+), Ca(2+), and EPO in the exposed group. A positive correlation between the duration of mask use (in hours) with HIF-α (r = 0.247, P = 0.005) and Ca(2+) (r = 0.306, P < 0.001) was observed. The major complaints in N95-FFR/PPE users were headache (15.2%) and polydipsia (33.3%). CONCLUSION: The study findings depicted a significant metabolic alterations in PPE/N95 users which could be due to chronic hypoxic exposure of the tissues.