Aging Us
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Early identification of severe patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is very important for individual treatment. We included 203 patients with COVID-19 by propensity score matching in this retrospective, case-control study. The effects of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at admission on patients with COVID-19 were evaluated. ⋯ Therefore, elevated LDH level at admission is an independent risk factor for the severity and mortality of COVID-19. LDH can assist in the early evaluating of COVID-19. Clinicians should pay attention to the serum LDH level at admission for patients with COVID-19.
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Italy was the first European nation to be affected by COVID-19. The biggest cluster of cases occurred in Lombardy, the most populous Italian region, and elderly men were the population hit in the hardest way. Besides its high infectivity, COVID-19 causes a severe cytokine storm and old people, especially those with comorbidities, appear to be the most vulnerable, presumably in connection to inflammaging. ⋯ Within this scenario, we wondered if: a) the COVID-19 mortality in centenarians was lower than that in people aged between 50 and 80 and b) the mortality from COVID-19 in nonagenarians and centenarians highlighted gender differences. We checked COVID-19-related vulnerability/mortality at the peak of infection (March 2020), using data on total deaths (i.e. not only confirmed COVID-19 cases). Our conclusion is that excess mortality increases steadily up to very old ages and at the same time men older than 90 years become relatively more resilient than age-matched females.
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Meta Analysis
Epidemiological, comorbidity factors with severity and prognosis of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted in an attempt to systematically collect and evaluate the associations of epidemiological, comorbidity factors with the severity and prognosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted according to the guidelines proposed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Sixty nine publications met our study criteria, and 61 studies with more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases were eligible for the quantitative synthesis. ⋯ Older age was found to be significantly associated with the disease severity and six prognostic endpoints. Chronic kidney disease contributed mostly for death (RR: 7.10, 95% CI: 3.14-16.02), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for disease severity (RR: 4.20, 95% CI: 2.82-6.25), admission to intensive care unit (ICU) (RR: 5.61, 95% CI: 2.68-11.76), the composite endpoint (RR: 8.52, 95% CI: 4.36-16.65,), invasive ventilation (RR: 6.53, 95% CI: 2.70-15.84), and disease progression (RR: 7.48, 95% CI: 1.60-35.05), cerebrovascular disease for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (RR: 3.15, 95% CI: 1.23-8.04), coronary heart disease for cardiac abnormality (RR: 5.37, 95% CI: 1.74-16.54). Our study highlighted that the male gender, older age and comorbidities owned strong epidemiological evidence of associations with the severity and prognosis of COVID-19.
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Changes in expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in plasma exosomes can be useful for diagnosis of cancer patients. Here, we conducted a four-stage study to identify plasma exosome lncRNAs with diagnostic potential in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). First, plasma exosome lncRNA expression profiles were examined in ESCC patients, esophagitis patients, and healthy controls using RNA sequencing. ⋯ Expression levels of the lncRNAs NR_039819, NR_036133, NR_003353, ENST00000442416.1, and ENST00000416100.1 were significantly higher in exosomes from ESCC patients than non-cancer controls. We also confirmed that levels of these five plasma exosome lncRNAs decreased markedly in ESCC patients after surgery. Our results suggest that these five exosome lncRNAs may serve as highly effective, noninvasive biomarkers for ESCC diagnosis.
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Observational Study
Lactate dehydrogenase, an independent risk factor of severe COVID-19 patients: a retrospective and observational study.
The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a public health emergency of global concern. Updated analysis of cases might help identify the risk factors of illness severity. ⋯ We extracted data regarding 107 patients with confirmed COVID-19 from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. The degree of severity of COVID-19 patients (severe vs. non-severe) was defined at the time of admission according to American Thoracic Society guidelines for community acquired pneumonia.