Article Summary
June 22, 2020
Depression and Anxiety Changes Among Sexual and Gender Minority People Coinciding with Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic
Flentje et al. reported that from June 2019 to March-April 2020, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic onset, there were significant increases in depression (as measured by the PHQ-9 tool) and anxiety (as measured by the GAD-7 tool) among a cohort of 2,288 sexual and gender minority people. Flentje et al. (June 17, 2020). Depression and Anxiety Changes Among Sexual and Gender Minority People Coinciding with Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of…
Relationship between ABO Blood Group Distribution and Clinical Characteristics in Patients with COVID-19
Wu et al. explored ABO blood group distribution and clinical characteristics in 187 patients with COVID-19 compared to 1,991 controls at the First Hospital of Changsha in China. Data showed that patients with blood group A had an increased risk for COVID-19 (OR=1.54, 95%CI 1.12, 2.10), whereas blood group O was associated with a decreased risk (OR=0.65, 95%CI 0.46, 0.93). Wu…
Identification and Validation of a Novel Clinical Signature to Predict the Prognosis in Confirmed COVID-19 Patients
Wu et al. constructed a prognostic signature for COVID-19 composed of five indicators (neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, procalcitonin, older age, and C-reactive protein) among 270 patients with confirmed COVID-19. They showed that the combined predictive ability of the signature surpassed the use of each of the five indicators alone and concluded that it could be used as a risk assessment for closely monitoring patients. Wu et al….
Variation in Ventilator Allocation Guidelines by US State During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic
Piscitello et al. reviewed publicly available guidelines about ventilator allocation for all states and reported that only 26 US states provided adult guidelines and 14 states provided pediatric guidelines. Guidelines differed in their prioritization criteria, with use of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score in the initial rank of adult patients in 15 state guidelines (58%) and assessment of limited life…
Performance Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 PCR Assays Developed by WHO Referral Laboratories
Etievant et al. compared the performance of five RT-PCR-based methods developed by World Health Organization referral laboratories. Three assays known as N China CDC, N1 US CDC, and RdRp (IP2, IP4) were found to be the most sensitive assays on based on SARS-CoV-2 cell culture supernatants and clinical respiratory samples. The E Charité and N2 US CDC assays had false-positive results from negative samples and negative controls. …
Posterior Oropharyngeal Saliva for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2
Cheuk et al. paired 229 posterior oropharyngeal saliva (POPS) samples with same-day nasopharyngeal (NP) samples and reported an overall agreement of 76%, a negative agreement of 65%, and a positive agreement of 76.0%. Better positive agreement was observed for samples obtained within seven days of symptom onset (96.6%) compared to greater than seven days after symptom onset (75.0%). Cheuk et al. (June 21, 2020). Posterior Oropharyngeal Saliva for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa797
Reconstruction of Transmission Pairs for Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Mainland China: Estimation of Super-Spreading Events, Serial Interval, and Hazard of Infection
Xu et al. analyzed 643 transmission clusters from 1,407 transmission pairs in mainland China and identified 34 primary cases as super-spreaders and 5 super-spreading events that occurred within households. The median duration between symptom onset of primary and secondary cases was 5.0 days (IQR 1.5-8.5) for household transmissions and 5.2 days (1.6-8.8) for non-household transmissions. The risk of being infected outside of households was higher for those age 18 to 64 years, whereas the risk…
High-Density Amplicon Sequencing Identifies Community Spread and Ongoing Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in the Southern United States
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] McNamara et al. demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 evolution in a suburban Southern US region using high-density amplicon sequencing of 175 symptomatic cases. The presence of spike D614G variant, a mutation implicated in higher pathogenicity of the virus, was observed among 57% of strains and was associated with a higher genome copy number (p<0.002). The single nucleotide variant pattern…
Clinical and Immunological Assessment of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections
There was a longer duration of viral shedding among a group of 37 asymptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Wanzhou District, China, compared to a paired symptomatic group (HR 1.69, 95%CI 1.06, 2.70). Asymptomatic individuals had significantly lower virus-specific IgG levels (median 3.4, IQR 1.6-10.7 vs. 20.5, 5.8-38.2; p = 0.005) in the acute phase of infection. Asymptomatic individuals were more likely to have a reduction in neutralizing antibody…
Asymptomatic Patients as a Source of COVID-19 Infections: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Kronbichler et al. conducted a meta-analysis with 34 studies that included 506 asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 and reported that 62% had abnormalities visible in computed tomography (CT) scans, with ground glass opacities in the lungs most frequently observed (43%). Patients with normal CT results were younger than patients with abnormal CT findings (mean 20 years vs. 39 Years; p = 0.013). Kronbichler et al. (June 13, 2020). Asymptomatic Patients as a Source of COVID-19 Infections: A Systematic Review and…
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