BackgroundThe effects of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy hospitalised patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain uncertain. This study investigates the effect CP on clinical improvement in these patients.MethodsThis is an investigator-initiated, randomised, parallel arm, open-label, superiority clinical trial. Patients were randomly (1:1) assigned to two infusions of CP plus standard of care (SOC) or SOC alone. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with clinical improvement 28 days after enrolment.ResultsA total of 160 (80 in each arm) patients (66.3% were critically ill and 33.7%, severe) completed the trial. The median age was 60.5 years (interquartile range [IQR], 48–68), 58.1% were men and the median time from symptom onset to randomisation was 10 days (IQR, 8–12). Neutralising antibodies titres >1:80 were present in 133 (83.1%) patients at baseline. The proportion of patients with clinical improvement on day 28 was 61.3% in the CP+SOC and 65.0% in the SOC group (difference, −3.7%; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], −18.8%-11.3%). The results were similar in the subgroups of severe and critically ill. There was no significant difference between CP+SOC and SOC groups in prespecified secondary outcomes, including 28-day mortality, days alive and free of respiratory support and duration of invasive ventilatory support. Inflammatory and other laboratorial markers values on days 3, 7 and 14 were similar between groups.ConclusionsCP+SOC did not result in a higher proportion of clinical improvement on at day 28 in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 compared to SOC alone.

Paecilomyces variotii is a commonly occurring species in air and food, and it is also associated with many types of human infections. Pneumonia due to Paecilomyces variotii has been rarely reported in the medical literature. The authors report a 48-year-old patient with refractory lymphoma who underwent allogenic hematopoietic cell transplantation and developed pneumonia due to Paecilomyces variotii. They also review the published case reports of pneumonia caused by this fungus.

This population-based study was designed to detect the prevalence of anemia in a healthy population of children (18 months to 7 years) and women (14 to 30 years) tested in 2006–2007 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil as part of an effort to tackle this massive problem that still affects so many people in the XXI century. Anemia was defined according to the WHO. Capillary blood was measured and socioeconomic status was determined according to the Brazilian Association of Market Research Agencies. The median prevalence of anemia in 2198 children was 45.4% and in 1999 women 36.4%. Anemia decreased with age during childhood; although significantly more prevalent in lower classes individuals, it was also high in the upper classes. There are indirect evidences that the lack of iron supplementation and/or iron fortified food may play a role in it. Professionals and society wise measures of education have to be implemented in order to address possible biologic factors involved in childhood psychosocial development in southern Brazil.

The results show that IRF and IPF are engraftment predictors. Peak in IPF was observed before rise in platelet count, while IRF rises before absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and persists increased. This indicates that IRF and IPF can be considered as new tools for hematopoietic assessment after HSCT.