Articles: sars-cov-2.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Utilizing press needle acupuncture to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19: A single-blind, randomized controlled trial.
In China, acupuncture has been employed as an adjunctive therapy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Press needle acupuncture is a special type of acupuncture that provides prolonged stimulation to acupuncture points and simultaneously reduces the pain associated with traditional acupuncture. This study assessed the effectiveness of integrating press needles alongside pharmacologic treatment in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. ⋯ This study suggests that utilizing press needle acupuncture as an adjunct to pharmacologic treatment can be effective in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms.
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Despite widespread application during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection using patient-performed rapid antigen tests (RATs) is limited, especially regarding the Delta and Omicron variants. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the performance of RATs in identifying Delta and Omicron infections in self-test settings. In this multicenter clinical performance study conducted in Korea between November 2021 and February 2022, we included participants without prior diagnostic device experience. ⋯ RATs exhibited high positive agreement for Omicron detection but lower rates for Delta, especially among partially vaccinated individuals. This study provides direct evidence that RATs, originally developed for ancestral strains of SARS-CoV-2, effectively detect major variants such as Delta and Omicron in real patient/clinical settings. By confirming variant presence through sequencing, our research offers significant and novel insights into the performance of RATs, particularly in the context of breakthrough infections postvaccination, with precise data on vaccination status and timing obtained from government records.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
In adults with postacute sequelae of COVID-19, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir did not improve symptoms at 10 wk.
Geng LN, Bonilla H, Hedlin H, et al. Nirmatrelvir-ritonavir and symptoms in adults with postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: the STOP-PASC randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184:1024-1034. 38848477.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewImplications of frailty before and after intensive care unit admission.
In the decade since the first publications related to frailty in those with critical illness, the study of frailty has rapidly increased. The purpose of this review is to update the reader on recent advances across several important areas of frailty research: how best to identify frailty in those with critical illness, studies describing the relationship between frailty and delirium, and how frailty affects outcomes for those with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which, despite rates and severity of acute infection declining, still tremendously impacts patients long after the acute infection, resulting in symptoms of long COVID-19. ⋯ Frailty in those with critical illness is an emerging field of study. Future work to define the optimal means by which to identify this syndrome and how best to manage critically ill patients with frailty are needed.