Annals of the American Thoracic Society
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Asthma patients were advised to avoid Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and comply to medication during COVID-19 pandemic. Respiratory tract infection is a common cause of asthma exacerbation. There has not been evidence suggesting the link between COVID-19 and asthma exacerbation, especially in places with dramatic responses in infection control with universal masking and aggressive social distancing. ⋯ Hospitalization number for asthma exacerbation significantly decreased in early 2020 with similar length of stay. This was observed with concomitant practice of universal masking and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. We proposed that universal masking and social distancing reduced respiratory viral infection, leading to less hospital admission with asthma exacerbation.
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Patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) meet clinical criteria for the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), yet early reports suggested they differ physiologically and clinically from patients with non-COVID-19 ARDS, prompting treatment recommendations that deviate from standard evidence-based practices for ARDS. ⋯ In this single center cohort, we found no evidence for large differences between COVID-19 and non-COVID ARDS. Many key clinical features of severe COVID-19 were similar to those of non-COVID-19 ARDS, including respiratory physiology and clinical outcomes, although our sample size precludes definitive conclusions. Further studies are needed to define COVID-19-specific pathophysiology before deviation from evidence-based treatment practices can be recommended.
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Rationale: Prone positioning reduces mortality in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a feature of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Despite this, most patients with ARDS do not receive this lifesaving therapy. Objectives: To identify determinants of prone-positioning use, to develop specific implementation strategies, and to incorporate strategies into an overarching response to the COVID-19 crisis. ⋯ The task force developed five specific implementation strategies, including educational outreach, learning collaborative, clinical protocol, prone-positioning team, and automated alerting, elements of which were rapidly implemented at Penn Medicine. Conclusions: We identified five broad themes of determinants of evidence-based use of prone positioning for severe ARDS and several specific strategies to address these themes. These strategies may be feasible for rapid implementation to increase use of prone positioning for severe ARDS with COVID-19.