Plos One
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COVID-19 is frequently complicated by venous thromboembolism (VTE). Computed tomography (CT) of the chest-primarily usually conducted as low-dose, non-contrast enhanced CT-plays an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia. Performed as contrast-enhanced CT pulmonary angiography, it can reliably detect or rule-out pulmonary embolism (PE). Several imaging characteristics of COVID-19 pneumonia have been described for chest CT, but no study evaluated CT findings in the context of VTE/PE. ⋯ COVID-19 pneumonia is frequently complicated by pulmonary embolism (incidence of 28% in our cohort), remarkably with lacking evidence of deep vein thrombosis in nearly all thus affected patients of our cohort. As patients suffering VTE had an adverse outcome, we call for a high level of alertness for PE and advocate a lower threshold for contrast-enhanced CT in COVID-19 pneumonia. According to our observations, this might be particularly justified in the second week of disease and if a crazy paving pattern and / or air bronchogram is present on previous non-enhanced CT.
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There is a need to understand the impact of COVID-19 on colorectal cancer care globally and determine drivers of variation. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with severe restrictions in the availability of colorectal cancer services on a global scale, with significant variation in behaviours which cannot be fully accounted for by hospital burden or mortality.
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To investigate the blood coagulation function in COVID-19 patients, and the correlation between coagulopathy and disease severity. ⋯ Most COVID-19 patients with inordinate coagulation systems, dynamic monitoring of coagulation parameters might be a key in the control of COVID-19 death.
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The objective of our systematic review is to identify prognostic factors that may be used in decision-making related to the care of patients infected with COVID-19. ⋯ Prospero registration number: CRD42020178802. Protocol available at: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20056598v1.
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Crude case-fatality rates (CFRs) for COVID-19 vary widely between countries. There are serious limitations in the CFRs when making comparisons. We examined how the age distribution of the cases is responsible for the COVID-19 CFR differences between countries. ⋯ The age structure of the cases explains much of differences in the crude CFRs between countries and adjusting for age substantially reduces this variation. Other factors such as the definition of cases, coding of deaths and the standard of healthcare are likely to account for much of the residual variation. It is misleading to compare the crude COVID-19 CFRs between countries and should be avoided. At the very least, age-specific and age-adjusted CFRs should be used for comparisons.