Result for
Topic: Testing and Treatment
September 4, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine Prescribing Patterns by Provider Specialty Following Initial Reports of Potential Benefit for COVID-19 Treatment — United States
• New prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in the US by medical professionals in specialties that do not routinely use these medications (<2% of prescriptions in 2019) rose from 1,143 in February 2020 to 75,596 in March 2020, an 80-fold increase from March 2019. These medications were reported to have benefits for prevention and treatment…
September 3, 2020
Effect of Dexamethasone on Days Alive and Ventilator-Free in Patients With Moderate or Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and COVID-19
Intravenous dexamethasone plus standard of care compared with standard care alone resulted in 2.3 days (95%CI 0.02-4.4, p=0.04) more ventilator-free days during the first 28 days in a randomized clinical trial among patients with COVID-19 who had moderate to severe respiratory failure (n=299) in Brazil. The trial was stopped early before reaching the planned sample…
Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19
Administration of hydrocortisone, either as a 7-day fixed-dose course, or dosing only during periods of shock, was associated with being alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support within 21 days, according to findings of a randomized control trial (n=384) which was stopped early after results were released from another trial. The fixed-dose course…
September 2, 2020
Serological Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Infections among Children Visiting a Hospital during the Initial Seattle Outbreak
Six of eight children who had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detected in leftover clinical samples had not been suspected of having COVID-19. Dingens et al. screened 1,775 leftover serum samples from children seeking medical care at Seattle Children’s Hospital during the early Seattle outbreak period and found one child was seropositive with SARS-CoV-2 in March and seven…
Association Between Administration of Systemic Corticosteroids and Mortality Among Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19 A Meta-Analysis
A meta-analysis of 7 randomized trials conducted in 12 countries and including 1,703 critically ill patients with COVID-19 found that administration of systemic corticosteroids, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality (OR=0.7, 95%CI 0.5-0.8). Serious adverse events occurred in 64/354 (18%) patients who were randomized to corticosteroids and 80 events…
September 1, 2020
A Simple Approach to Optimum Pool Size for Pooled SARS-CoV-2 Testing
In determining the optimal sample pooling size for large-scale SARS-CoV-2 testing, Regen et al. found that sample pooling only marginally improves testing capacities in high prevalence settings (>10%) while potentially substantially reducing costs and saving labor in low prevalence settings. The investigators derived a simple-to-use formula for calculating the optimal pool size given a target…
Frequency of Serological Non-Responders and False-Negative RT-PCR Results in SARS-CoV-2 Testing: A Population-Based Study
RT-PCR results at first clinical presentation and follow-up serology results were found to differ in about in 15% of patients suffering from nonsevere COVID-19 who had a positive test by RT-PCR and/or subsequent antibody testing. A study from Liechtenstein and Switzerland found that 12 (18%) out of 66 patients with an initial negative RT-PCR test…
August 31, 2020
Saliva or Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens for Detection of SARS-CoV-2
Wyllie et al. found that self-collected saliva specimens have similar sensitivity to clinician-collected nasopharyngeal specimens for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 during hospitalization. At 1 to 5 days after diagnosis by RT-PCR testing on nasopharyngeal swabs (n=70), 81% of the saliva samples were positive, compared to 71% of the nasopharyngeal swab samples. Wyllie et al. (Aug…
Safety Update: COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in 20,000 Hospitalized Patients
Severe adverse events related to transfusion of convalescent plasma were rare (<1%) among a sample of 20,000 adult patients with severe or life-threatening lab-confirmed COVID-19 who received convalescent plasma treatment. A total of 141(<1%) people experienced serious adverse events (SAEs) related to the transfusion of convalescent plasma within four hours of the procedure and an…
Low Utility of Repeat Real-Time PCR Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Clinical Specimens
Among people retested for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR within 7-days of a negative test (n=1,113), 2% had a positive result. Challener et al. conclude that the decision to repeat a SARS-CoV-2 PCR should involve the revised probability of COVID-19 based on the initial negative test, an assessment of whether an alternate specimen type may provide a…
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