Plos One
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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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Early differentiation between emergency department (ED) patients with and without corona virus disease (COVID-19) is very important. Chest CT scan may be helpful in early diagnosing of COVID-19. We investigated the diagnostic accuracy of CT using RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 as reference standard and investigated reasons for discordant results between the two tests. ⋯ The accuracy of chest CT in symptomatic ED patients is high, but used as a single diagnostic test, CT can not safely diagnose or exclude COVID-19. However, CT can be used as a quick tool to categorize patients into "probably positive" and "probably negative" cohorts.
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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.