Crisis, Support, and Structural Risk: Assessing the Financial Impact of COVID-19 on Polish Regional Airports

The global aviation sector underwent an unprecedented shock due to the COVID-19 pandemic, severely disrupting the passenger flows, flight operations, and revenues of Polish airports. In response, the government launched protective measures under the Anti-Crisis Shield and the COVID-19 Counteraction Fund. This study examines the financial impact of such public support on 12 Polish airports between 2016 and 2022, applying a two-step cointegration ECM framework with Driscoll–Kraay inference. Profitability (ROA, ROE, OM), liquidity, debt, and operational activity indicators were analysed, with particular attention to methodological distortions arising from including subsidies in operating revenues. The results indicate a material decline in profitability from 2020 to 2022, albeit with pronounced heterogeneity across airports. Larger hubs (Warsaw–Chopin, Kraków, Gdansk, Katowice, Poznan, and Wroclaw) demonstrated relative resilience, while many smaller, regionally owned airports (e.g., Bydgoszcz, Lodz, Lublin, Olsztyn-Mazury, Zielona Gora) remained structurally unprofitable despite substantial subsidies. In several cases, profitability, liquidity, and operating activity recovered by 2021–2022, yet the improvement was not uniform: for fiscally dependent airports, transfers merely masked persistent inefficiencies. Passenger volumes, flight operations, and employment emerged as the primary performance drivers, while capital expenditure, turnover of current assets, and liquidity were particularly relevant for ROE. The novelty of this research lies in disentangling the stabilising effect of subsidies from underlying profitability, revealing how non-market revenues distort standard performance metrics and accelerate short-run adjustment dynamics once netted out. The findings demonstrate asymmetric impacts of state aid across ownership structures, i.e., central state control at Warsaw versus regional self-government involvement elsewhere, and highlight structural inefficiencies that weaken systemic resilience. These insights underline the importance of subsidy-adjusted financial indicators, more selective allocation of support, and reporting standards that separate operating from non-market revenues to enhance resilience and ensure sustainable airport operations

The Incidence Trend and Management of Thyroid Cancer—What Has Changed in the Past Years: Own Experience and Literature Review

Because of ambiguous and widely debated observations concerning the incidence, trend, and management of TC, we performed this analysis. We drew attention to some events, such as “cancer screening activity”, introduction of noninvasive follicular neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP) to TC types, possibility of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) active surveillance (AS), occurrence of personalized medicine in TC management, and, finally, COVID-19 pandemic time. Because of the opinion that all changes have been made mostly by PTC, we compared it to the remaining types of TC in terms of incidence, clinical and pathological characteristics, and treatment. We analyzed patients treated in a single surgical center in eastern Europe (Poland). The prevalence of TC significantly increased from 5.15% in 2008 to 13.84% in 2015, and then significantly decreased to 1.33% in 2022 when the COVID-19 pandemic lasted (p < 0.0001). A similar trend was observed for PTC, when the incidence significantly increased to 13.99% in 2015 and then decreased to 1.38% in 2022 (p < 0.0001). At that time, the NIFTP category was introduced, and observation of PTMC began. The prevalence of FTC and MTC also increased until 2015 and then decreased. Significant differences in age, types of surgery, necessity of reoperation, and pTNM between PTCs and other types of TCs were observed. The average age was significantly lower in PTC patients than in patients with the remaining types of TC (p < 0.0001). Four milestones, including NIFTP introduction, the possibility of PTMC AS, personalized cancer medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic, may have influenced the general statistics of TC

Assessment of Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Dyspnea in Patients Hospitalized due to COVID-19: Contribution to Clinical Course and Mortality

Gastrointestinal manifestations may accompany the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. Abdominal pain (AP) without nausea and vomiting is one of the most common. To date, its role and prognostic value in patients with COVID-19 is still debated. Therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis of 2184 individuals admitted to hospital due to COVID-19. We divided the patients into four groups according to presented symptoms: dyspnea, n = 871 (39.9%); AP, n = 97 (4.4%); AP with dyspnea together, n = 50 (2.3%); and patients without dyspnea and AP, n = 1166 (53.4%). The patients with AP showed tendency to be younger than these with dyspnea, but without AP (63.0 [38.0–70.0] vs. 65.0 [52.0–74.0] years, p = 0.061), and they were more often females as compared to patients with dyspnea (57.7% vs. 44.6%, p = 0.013, for females). Patients with AP as a separate sign of COVID-19 significantly less often developed pneumonia as compared to individuals with dyspnea or with dyspnea and AP together (p &lt; 0.0001). Patients with AP or AP with dyspnea were significantly less frequently intubated or transferred to the intensive care unit (p = 0.003 and p = 0.031, respectively). Individuals with AP alone or with dyspnea had significantly lower rate of mortality as compared to patients with dyspnea (p = 0.003). AP as a separate symptom and also as a coexisting sign with dyspnea does not predispose the patients with COVID-19 to the worse clinical course and higher mortality.</jats:p

Liver Function Tests in COVID-19: Assessment of the Actual Prognostic Value

Deviations in laboratory tests assessing liver function in patients with COVID-19 are frequently observed. Their importance and pathogenesis are still debated. In our retrospective study, we analyzed liver-related parameters: aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), total bilirubin (TBIL), albumin, comorbidities and other selected potential risk factors in patients admitted with SARS-CoV-2 infection to assess their prognostic value for intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation necessity and mortality. We compared the prognostic effectiveness of these parameters separately and in pairs to the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as an independent risk factor of in-hospital mortality, using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Data were collected from 2109 included patients. We created models using a sample with complete laboratory tests n = 401 and then applied them to the whole studied group excluding patients with missing singular variables. We estimated that albumin may be a better predictor of the COVID-19-severity course compared to NLR, irrespective of comorbidities (p &lt; 0.001). Additionally, we determined that hypoalbuminemia in combination with AST (OR 1.003, p = 0.008) or TBIL (OR 1.657, p = 0.001) creates excellent prediction models for in-hospital mortality. In conclusion, the early evaluation of albumin levels and liver-related parameters may be indispensable tools for the early assessment of the clinical course of patients with COVID-19