{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T20:11:49Z","timestamp":1789762309277,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,5]],"date-time":"2023-06-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685923200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>The ultra-short wave diathermy (USWD) is widely used to ameliorate inflammation of bacterial pneumonia, however, for COVID-19 pneumonia, USWD still needs to be verified. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of USWD in COVID-19 pneumonia patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This was a single-center, evaluator-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Moderate and severe COVID-19 patients were recruited between 18 February and 20 April 2020. Participants were randomly allocated to receive USWD + standard medical treatment (USWD group) or standard medical treatment alone (control group). The negative conversion rate of SARS-CoV-2 and Systemic Inflammatory Response Scale (SIRS) on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 were assessed as primary outcomes. Secondary outcomes included time to clinical recovery, the 7-point ordinal scale, and adverse events.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Fifty patients were randomized (USWD, 25; control, 25), which included 22 males (44.0%) and 28 females (56.0%) with a mean (SD) age of 53 \u00b1 10.69. The rates of SARS-CoV-2 negative conversion on day 7 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.066), day 14 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.239), day 21 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.269), and day 28 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.490) were insignificant. However, systemic inflammation by SIRS was ameliorated with significance on day 7 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.030), day 14 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.002), day 21 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.003), and day 28 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.011). Time to clinical recovery (USWD 36.84\u2009\u00b1\u20099.93 vs. control 43.56\u2009\u00b1\u200912.15, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.037) was significantly shortened with a between-group difference of 6.72\u2009\u00b1\u20093.14\u2009days. 7-point ordinal scale on days 21 and 28 showed significance (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.002, 0.003), whereas the difference on days 7 and 14 was insignificant (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.524, 0.108). In addition, artificial intelligence-assisted CT analysis showed a greater decrease in the infection volume in the USWD group, without significant between-group differences. No treatment-associated adverse events or worsening of pulmonary fibrosis were observed in either group.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Among patients with moderate and severe COVID-19 pneumonia, USWD added to standard medical treatment could ameliorate systemic inflammation and shorten the duration of hospitalization without causing any adverse effects.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Clinical Trial Registration<\/jats:bold>: <jats:ext-link>chictr.org.cn<\/jats:ext-link>, identifier ChiCTR2000029972.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2023.1149250","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,5]],"date-time":"2023-06-05T05:22:26Z","timestamp":1685942546000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Efficacy and safety of ultra-short wave diathermy on COVID-19 pneumonia: a pioneering study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Liangjiang","family":"Huang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qian","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sayed Zulfiqar Ali","family":"Shah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"Nasb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iftikhar","family":"Ali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lingfeng","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.23750\/abm.v91i1.9397","article-title":"WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic","volume":"91","author":"Cucinotta","year":"2020","journal-title":"Acta Biomed"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1199","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa2001316","article-title":"Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia","volume":"382","author":"Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1015","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)30673-5","article-title":"COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic","volume":"395","author":"Bedford","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"717","DOI":"10.1093\/ije\/dyaa033","article-title":"The SARS, MERS and novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemics, the newest and biggest global health threats: what lessons have we learned?","volume":"49","author":"Peeri","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int J Epidemiol"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"950","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbi.2020.04.042","article-title":"The second worldwide wave of interest in coronavirus since the COVID-19 outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran: a Google trends study","volume":"88","author":"Strzelecki","year":"2020","journal-title":"Brain Behav Immun"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102361","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tmaid.2022.102361","article-title":"Effect of omicron on the prevalence of COVID-19 in international travelers at the Mexico city international airport. 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