Articles: sars-cov-2.
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Mar 2022
Cardiac surgery outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A case-series report.
The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the postoperative course of patients after cardiac surgery is unknown. We experienced a major severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak in our cardiac surgery unit, with several patients who tested positive early after surgery. Here we describe the characteristics, postoperative course, and laboratory findings of these patients, along with the fate of the health care workers. We also discuss how we reorganize and reallocate hospital resources to resume the surgical activity without further positive patients. ⋯ COVID-19 infection after cardiac surgery, regardless the time of the onset, is a serious condition. The systemic inflammatory state that follows extracorporeal circulation may mask the typical COVID-19 laboratory findings, making the diagnosis more difficult. A strict reorganization of the hospital resources is necessary to safely resume the cardiac surgical activity.
-
Little is known about real-world COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) in racially and ethnically diverse, elderly populations with high comorbidity burden. ⋯ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
-
To build a model of local hospital utilization resulting from SARS-CoV-2 and to continuously update it with new data. ⋯ The genetic particle filtering algorithm that we have proposed is effective at modeling hospitalizations due to SARS-CoV-2. The methods used by our model can be reproduced by any major health care system for the purposes of resource planning, staffing, and population care management to create an effective forecasting regimen at scale.
-
The ongoing global Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been posing challenges to proper patients' management. Lungs are the first, and often the most affected organ by SARS-CoV-2; viral infection involves and damages both epithelial and vascular compartments, sometimes leading to severe and even fatal acute respiratory distress syndrome. Histopathological findings, mainly from post-mortem examination of COVID-19 deceased patients, have been increasingly published in the last few months, helping to elucidate the sequence of events resulting in organ injury and the complex multifactorial pathogenesis of this novel disease. A multidisciplinary approach to autopsy, including light microscopy examination along with the detection of viral proteins and/or RNA in tissue samples through ancillary techniques, provided crucial information on the mechanisms underlying the often-heterogeneous clinical picture of COVID-19.
-
This study investigated the response to BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare workers (HCWs) in an Italian teaching hospital. 444 participants were surveyed with either multiple RT-PCR assays for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swabs or serology testing for the research of virus-specific immunoglobulins. Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) were reported. Two weeks after the first dose anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies exceeded reactivity cut-off in 82.5% the participants. ⋯ More than three-quarters reported AEFIs. Our findings offer an insight regarding the vaccine response after 3 months from its administration, with a special focus on effectiveness data, as well as the type and number of AEFIs complained by HCW recipients. The presented study may serve as reference for future research which will be necessary to explore the long-term safety of this vaccine, especially in population at high risk for infection, such as HCWs.