Lombardy, Italy, 4 versus no COVID -19 -related mortality in Wuhan, China. 5,6 That is why we aimed to describe demographic characteristics, the clinical course of COVID -19, laboratory and imaging findings, and outcomes in this unique patient population.
Patients and methods Study population and data collectionWe included only the dialyzed patients transferred to our Dialysis Unit who had a confirmed diagnosis of COVID -19. A confirmed diagnosis was defined as a positive result of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay test (gene targets: RdRp, E, and N) for SARS -CoV -2 performed using the patient's nasopharyngeal swab.Twenty -three adults (at the age of 18 years or older) were identified from 6 different hemodialysis clinics in the Masovian region. We included 19 maintenance hemodialysis patients in the analysis (for a follow -up longer than 14 days and / or until an endpoint in treatment was reached, ie, virus elimination or the patient's death). Three patients in whom the follow -up was shorter than 14 days and a single dialysis -dependent patient with acute kidney injury due to ethylene glycol ingestion were excluded.Medical records were obtained from each institution and included information on patients' demographics and comorbidities. Laboratory and radiologic data were retrieved from patients' electronic records. Additional tests and imaging were left at the discretion of the treating physician. Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS -CoV -2) is a novel coronavirus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID -19). Its spread started when multiple cases of pneumonia of unknown origin occurred in Wuhan, China, and were first reported to the World Health Organization Country Office in China on December 31, 2019. The infection spread rapidly to other parts of the world and was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, when the number of cases hit 118 000 in 114 countries of the world. 1 The first case in Poland was reported on March 4, 2020. Local transmission of SARS -CoV -2 was reported to the World Health Organization on March 10, 2020. 2 On March 13, 2020, the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration in Warsaw was one of the 19 hospitals in Poland repurposed into a designated hospital adapted to take care of patients with COVID -19 only. The hemodialysis facility was also turned into a dialysis clinic for COVID--19 -positive patients in order to serve hemodialysis patients from Warsaw and the Masovian region (5.403 million people and 2713 chronic hemodialysis patients). Between March 20 and April 18, 2020, 23 maintenance hemodialysis patients and a single patient on hemodialysis due to acute kidney injury, all with confirmed COVID -19, were under our care.Reports on hemodialysis patients with SARS -CoV -2 infection are limited, with conflicting data on mortality: 15.2% mortality in the United Kingdom Renal Registry, 3 24% mortality in