Articles: sars-cov-2.
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This study analysed the evolution of the association of socioeconomic deprivation (SED) with SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes in urban Italy during the vaccine rollout in 2021. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis between January and November 2021, comprising of 16,044,530 individuals aged ≥ 20 years, by linking national COVID-19 surveillance system data to the Italian SED index calculated at census block level. ⋯ Between the low and high coverage periods, IRRs for the most deprived areas increased from 1.09 (95%CI 1.03-1.15) to 1.28 (95%CI 1.21-1.37) for infection; 1.48 (95%CI 1.36-1.61) to 2.02 (95%CI 1.82-2.25) for hospitalisation and 1.57 (95%CI 1.36-1.80) to 1.89 (95%CI 1.53-2.34) for death. Deprived populations in urban Italy should be considered as vulnerable groups in future pandemic preparedness plans to respond to COVID-19 in particular during mass vaccination roll out phases with gradual lifting of social distancing measures.
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Case Reports
A 52-Year-Old Woman With Dysarthria, Ataxia, Xanthelasmas, and Miliary Pulmonary Nodules.
A 52-year-old woman with no significant medical history was referred to our hospital for expedited workup of progressive dysarthria and ataxia over the past year. Prior CT angiography of the head and neck showed no relevant neurologic findings but did reveal miliary lesions in the lung apices, which was later confirmed via dedicated CT chest scan (Fig 1). ⋯ MRI of the face showed a 21-mm mass within the left external temporal fascia. MRI of the head showed diffuse leptomeningeal enhancement, right frontal lobe enhancement, and cerebellar and brainstem T2/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery hyperintensity, which prompted her admission to hospital.
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J Coll Physicians Surg Pak · Apr 2024
Performance Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test Among Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Patients in the Emergency Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test (RAT) for the diagnosis of COVID-19 among symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. This retrospective study was done from 15th November 2021 to 15th December 2021, at National Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan. Two parallel nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from each patient, and SARS-CoV-2 RAT and SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were done. ⋯ High diagnostic accuracy of 91.81% and 96.29% were noted in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, respectively. SARS-CoV-2 RAT (Roche) can be used for early diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 patients in busy emergency departments. Key Words: COVID-19, Diagnosis, Rapid antigen test, RT-PCR, Emergency service.