Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Oct 2020
ReviewGeospatial Hotspots Need Point-of-Care Strategies to Stop Highly Infectious Outbreaks: Ebola and Coronavirus.
Point-of-care testing (POCT), diagnostic testing at or near the site of patient care, is inherently spatial, that is, performed at points of need, and also intrinsically temporal, because it produces fast actionable results. Outbreaks generate geospatial "hotspots." POC strategies help control hotspots, detect spread, and speed treatment of highly infectious diseases. ⋯ POCT can interrupt spirals of dysfunction and delay by enhancing disease detection, decision-making, contagion containment, and safe spacing, thereby softening outbreak surges and diminishing risk before human, economic, and cultural losses mount. POCT results identify where infected individuals spread Coronavirus infectious disease-19, when delays cause death, and how to deploy resources. Results in national cloud databases help optimize outbreak control, mitigation, emergency response, and community resilience. The Coronavirus infectious disease-19 pandemic demonstrates unequivocally that governments must support POCT and multidisciplinary healthcare personnel must learn its principles, then adopt POC geospatial strategies, so that onsite diagnostic testing can ramp up to meet needs in times of crisis.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coagulation dysfunction is a hallmark in patients with COVID-19. Fulminant thrombotic complications emerge as critical issues in patients with severe COVID-19. ⋯ COVID-19-associated coagulopathy ranges from mild laboratory alterations to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with a predominant phenotype of thrombotic/multiple organ failure. Characteristically, high D-dimer levels on admission and/or continuously increasing concentrations of D-dimer are associated with disease progression and poor overall survival. SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers the immune-hemostatic response. Drastic inflammatory responses including, but not limited to, cytokine storm, vasculopathy, and NETosis may contribute to an overwhelming activation of coagulation. Hypercoagulability and systemic thrombotic complications necessitate anticoagulant and thrombolytic interventions, which provide opportunities to prevent or reduce "excessive" thrombin generation while preserving "adaptive" hemostasis and bring additional benefit via their anti-inflammatory effect in the setting of COVID-19.