Infection
-
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic challenges national health systems and the global economy. Monitoring of infection rates and seroprevalence can guide public health measures to combat the pandemic. This depends on reliable tests on active and former infections. Here, we set out to develop and validate a specific and sensitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. ⋯ With the described RBD-based ELISA protocol, we provide a reliable test for seroepidemiological surveys. Due to high specificity and strong correlation with virus neutralization, the RBD ELISA holds great potential to become a preferred tool to assess thresholds of protective immunity after infection and vaccination.
-
Especially in elderly and multimorbid patients, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) may result in severe pneumonia and secondary complications. Recent studies showed pneumothorax in rare cases, but tension pneumothorax has only been reported once. ⋯ V.
-
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has become a global public health concern; however, relatively few detailed reports of related cardiac injury are available. The aims of this study were to compare the clinical and echocardiographic characteristics of inpatients in the intensive-care unit (ICU) and non-ICU patients. ⋯ Myocardial injury marker elevation, ventricular wall thickening, pulmonary artery hypertension, and cardiac complications including acute myocardial injury, arrhythmia, and acute heart failure are more common in ICU patients with COVID-19. Cardiac injury in COVID-19 patients may be related more to the systemic response after infection rather than direct damage by coronavirus.
-
Letter Historical Article
No SARS-CoV-2 detection in the German CAPNETZ cohort of community acquired pneumonia before COVID-19 peak in March 2020.
The first SARS-CoV-2 cases in Europe were reported in January 2020. Recently, concern arose on unrecognized infections before this date. For a better understanding of the pandemic, we retrospectively analyzed patient samples for SARS-CoV-2 from the prospective CAPNETZ study cohort. ⋯ Respiratory viral pathogens accounted for a considerable number of positive results but no SARS-CoV-2 case was identified before the end of March 2020.
-
Case Reports
Baricitinib as rescue therapy in a patient with COVID-19 with no complete response to sarilumab.
A patient with COVID-19-related severe respiratory failure, with insufficient response to an antiretroviral therapy, hydroxychloroquine and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) antagonist therapy, presented a prompt resolution of the respiratory function and improvement in the radiological picture after baricitinib at an oral dose of 4 mg per day for 2 weeks.