Background World Health Organization expert groups recommended mortality trials of four repurposed antiviral drugs — remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon beta-1a — in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Methods We randomly assigned inpatients with Covid-19 equally between one of the trial drug regimens that was locally available and open control (up to five options, four active and the local standard of care). The intention-to-treat primary analyses examined in-hospital mortality in the four pairwise comparisons of each trial drug and its control (drug available but patient assigned to the same care without that drug). Rate ratios for death were calculated with stratification according to age and status regarding mechanical ventilation at trial entry. Results At 405 hospitals in 30 countries, 11,330 adults underwent randomization; 2750 were assigned to receive remdesivir, 954 to hydroxychloroquine, 1411 to lopinavir (without interferon), 2063 to interferon (including 651 to interferon plus lopinavir), and 4088 to no trial drug. Adherence was 94 to 96% midway through treatment, with 2 to 6% crossover. In total, 1253 deaths were reported (median day of death, day 8; interquartile range, 4 to 14). The Kaplan–Meier 28-day mortality was 11.8% (39.0% if the patient was already receiving ventilation at randomization and 9.5% otherwise). Death occurred in 301 of 2743 patients receiving remdesivir and in 303 of 2708 receiving its control (rate ratio, 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81 to 1.11; P=0.50), in 104 of 947 patients receiving hydroxychloroquine and in 84 of 906 receiving its control (rate ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.89 to 1.59; P=0.23), in 148 of 1399 patients receiving lopinavir and in 146 of 1372 receiving its control (rate ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.79 to 1.25; P=0.97), and in 243 of 2050 patients receiving interferon and in 216 of 2050 receiving its control (rate ratio, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.39; P=0.11). No drug definitely reduced mortality, overall or in any subgroup, or reduced initiation of ventilation or hospitalization duration. Conclusions These remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon regimens had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with Covid-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay. (Funded by the World Health Organization; ISRCTN Registry number, ISRCTN83971151 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04315948 .)

Background-Red blood cell transfusion can both benefit and harm. To inform decisions about transfusion, we aimed to quantify associations of transfusion with clinical outcomes and cost in patients having cardiac surgery. Methods and Results-Clinical, hematology, and blood transfusion databases were linked with the UK population register.Additional hematocrit information was obtained from intensive care unit charts. Composite infection (respiratory or wound infection or septicemia) and ischemic outcomes (myocardial infarction, stroke, renal impairment, or failure) were prespecified as coprimary end points. Secondary outcomes were resource use, cost, and survival. Associations were estimated by regression modeling with adjustment for potential confounding.

UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.

BACKGROUNDWhether a restrictive threshold for hemoglobin level in red-cell transfusions, as compared with a liberal threshold, reduces postoperative morbidity and health care costs after cardiac surgery is uncertain. METHODSWe conducted a multicenter, parallel-group trial in which patients older than 16 years of age who were undergoing nonemergency cardiac surgery were recruited from 17 centers in the United Kingdom. Patients with a postoperative hemoglobin level of less than 9 g per deciliter were randomly assigned to a restrictive transfusion threshold (hemoglobin level <7.5 g per deciliter) or a liberal transfusion threshold (hemoglobin level <9 g per deciliter). The primary outcome was a serious infection (sepsis or wound infection) or an ischemic event (permanent stroke [confirmation on brain imaging and deficit in motor, sensory, or coordination functions], myocardial infarction, infarction of the gut, or acute kidney injury) within 3 months after randomization. Health care costs, excluding the index surgery, were estimated from the day of surgery to 3 months after surgery. RESULTSA total of 2007 patients underwent randomization; 4 participants withdrew, leaving 1000 in the restrictive-threshold group and 1003 in the liberal-threshold group. Transfusion rates after randomization were 53.4% and 92.2% in the two groups, respectively. The primary outcome occurred in 35.1% of the patients in the restrictive-threshold group and 33.0% of the patients in the liberal-threshold group (odds ratio, 1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91 to 1.34; P = 0.30); there was no indication of heterogeneity according to subgroup. There were more deaths in the restrictive-threshold group than in the liberal-threshold group (4.2% vs. 2.6%; hazard ratio, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.00 to 2.67; P = 0.045). Serious postoperative complications, excluding primary-outcome events, occurred in 35.7% of participants in the restrictive-threshold group and 34.2% of participants in the liberal-threshold group. Total costs did not differ significantly between the groups. CONCLUSIONSA restrictive transfusion threshold after cardiac surgery was not superior to a liberal threshold with respect to morbidity or health care costs.

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cause for concern. Reviewing the service after the nurses have more experience running it and estimating the real cost effectiveness outside the artificial restrictions of a trial would be useful. It would also be interesting to study the longer term effects of the nurses' service on patients' attitudes to their illnesses and behaviour in seeking health care.Various members of the South Thames Research Network provided invaluable support during all stages of this study, in particular Dr Sarah Clement. The network is funded by the South East and London regions of the NHS Executive. Statistical analysis was supervised by Dr Pak Sham. Thanks are also owed to the staff of the five practices, to the nurses who volunteered to participate in the study, and to the patients who took part.Contributors: CS initiated and coordinated the formulation of the hypothesis, discussed core ideas, designed the study protocol and questionnaires, analysed the data, acted as overall coordinator for the trial, and participated in writing the paper. CS is guarantor for the paper. AH helped formulate the core ideas and the study protocol, participated in data collection, and contributed to writing the paper. DW helped formulate the core ideas and study protocol and participated in writing the paper. MAC helped formulate the hypothesis and protocol and participated in writing the paper. SK participated in collecting the data and coordinating the day to day running of the study. SC helped formulate the hypothesis and core ideas, designed the protocol for data analysis, and participated in writing the paper.Funding: This project was funded by the project grant scheme of the South Thames region of the NHS Executive.Competing interests: None declared. AbstractObjective To ascertain any differences between care from nurse practitioners and that from general practitioners for patients seeking "same day" consultations in primary care.

ISRCTN Identifier: 08256118.

The flow cytometric test measures the fluorescence intensity of intact red cells labelled with the dye eosin-5-maleimide, which reacts covalently with Lys-430 on the first extracellular loop of band 3 protein. In this study, red cells from patients with hereditary spherocytosis (HS), congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia type II, South-east Asian ovalocytosis and cryohydrocytosis have produced a greater degree of reduction of mean channel fluorescence readings than those for other patient groups and normal controls. The predictive value of this test for membrane abnormality was compared with the results obtained from the sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) method, which is currently the reference laboratory test for the identification of membrane protein deficiencies in hereditary spherocytosis and for the detection of spectrin variants in hereditary elliptocytosis. The dye method is a reliable, speedy diagnostic test (2 h from sample collection to result) for HS with a sensitivity of 92.7% and a specificity of 99.1%. Thus, it will serve well as a first-line screening test for the diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis in routine haematology.