Result for
Topic: Testing and Treatment
January 15, 2021
Corticosteroid Treatment Has No Effect on Hospital Mortality in COVID-19 Patients
Treatment with corticosteroids was not associated with in-hospital mortality among adults hospitalized with COVID-19 (n=1,444) after adjusting for confounding factors, although patients receiving steroids were less likely to be admitted to the ICU compared to patients not receiving them. The authors used propensity score matching to account for potential differences between patients who were prescribed…
January 14, 2021
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Outpatients: A Multi-Centre Comparison of Self-Collected Saline Gargle, Oral Swab and Combined Oral-Anterior Nasal Swab to a Provider Collected Nasopharyngeal Swab
Three self-collected non-nasopharyngeal swab techniques (saline gargle, oral swab, and oral-anterior nasal swab) demonstrated similar sensitivity to a provider-collected nasopharyngeal swab, when a positive test on any of the samples tested was used as the reference standard. Compared to 90% sensitivity using the provider-collected nasopharyngeal swab, the saline gargle, oral swab, and oral-anterior nasal swab…
Modelling Pool Testing for SARS-CoV-2: Addressing Heterogeneity in Populations
A modeling study suggests that pooled SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing where samples are pooled according to age group could decrease the number of tests per subject needed to diagnose one case, compared to conventional pooling that determines group size according to community prevalence. Though the decrease is small, large-scale testing could amplify savings, particularly in settings…
January 13, 2021
Performance and Implementation Evaluation of the Abbott BinaxNOW Rapid Antigen Test in a High-Throughput Drive-through Community Testing Site in Massachusetts
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An evaluation of the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card in a drive-through community testing site in Massachusetts using anterior nasal swab RT-PCR for clinical testing found that BinaxNOW had very high specificity in both adults and children (100% for both) and very high sensitivity in newly symptomatic adults (96.5% within 7 days…
Convalescent Plasma Antibody Levels and the Risk of Death from Covid-19
Among hospitalized adults treated with convalescent plasma, death within 30 days occurred in 115 of 515 (22%) patients in the group that received a product with a high titer of anti-spike IgG antibodies, 549 of 2006 (27%) patients in the medium-titer group, and 166 of 561 (30%) patients in the low-titer group. The relationship differed…
January 12, 2021
The Sensitivity and Costs of Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Saliva Versus Nasopharyngeal Swabs
A systematic review and meta-analysis (37 studies with 7,332 paired nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples) found that while saliva samples had slightly lower sensitivity to detect SARS-CoV-2, they could be more cost-effective. Against a reference standard of a positive result on either sample, saliva sensitivity was 7.9% lower than nasopharyngeal swab sensitivity among persons without…
January 11, 2021
Continuation versus Discontinuation of Renin–Angiotensin System Inhibitors in Patients Admitted to Hospital with COVID-19: A Prospective, Randomised, Open-Label Trial
A prospective, randomized, open-label trial concluded that renin–angiotensin system inhibitors, which are commonly used to treat hypertension, could safely be continued in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Between March 31 and August 20, 2020, 152 participants were randomly assigned to either continue or discontinue renin–angiotensin system inhibitor therapy. 16 (21%) participants in the continuation arm versus…
Using Lorenz Curves to Measure Racial Inequities in COVID-19 Testing
A cross-sectional study using modified Lorenz curves to assess disparities in COVID-19 testing relative to disease burden found that in the St. Louis region, 89,341 SARS-CoV-2 tests (22.9%) were conducted in the 23 zip codes accounting for 50% of hospitalizations; 17 of these zip codes had a population where >50% of residents were Black. In…
January 8, 2021
Assessment of Day-7 Postexposure Testing of Asymptomatic Contacts of COVID-19 Patients to Evaluate Early Release from Quarantine — Vermont, May–November 2020
Following a policy change to shorten the duration of quarantine for people exposed to SARS-CoV-2 who remained asymptomatic and tested negative by PCR at day 7, an analysis did not identify any contacts who tested positive within the subsequent week. Among 940 contacts of people with COVID-19 who tested negative seven days after exposure, 154…
Interleukin-6 Receptor Antagonists in Critically Ill Patients with Covid-19
[pre-print; not peer-reviewed] A randomized trial of the IL-6 receptor antagonists tocilizumab and sarilumab showed better patient outcomes, including 90-day survival and time to discharge, in critically ill adult COVID-19 patients who were receiving respiratory or cardiovascular organ support in intensive care units. According to this preliminary report from the randomized trial, in-hospital mortality was…
Previous page Next page