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Background and Aim: Viral pneumonia is the most relevant clinical presentation of COVID-19 which may lead to severe acute respiratory syndrome and even death.Eosinopenia was often noticed in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, but its role is poorly investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and eosinopenia. Methods:We revised the records of consecutive patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to our ER-COVID-19 area in order to compare clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with and without eosinopenia. We considered the following clinical outcomes: 4-weeks survival; need for intensive respiratory support; and hospital discharge.Results: Out of first 107 consecutive patients with pneumonia and a positive COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab, 75 patients showed undetectable eosinophil count (absolute eosinopenia). At 4 weeks, 38 patients (38.4%) had required intensive respiratory treatment, 25 (23.4%) deceased and 42 (39.2%) were discharged. Compared with patients without absolute eosinopenia, patients with absolute eosinopenia showed higher need of intensive respiratory treatment (49.3% vs 13.3%, P < .001), higher mortality (30.6% vs 6.2%, P .006) and lower rate of hospital discharge (28% vs 65.6%, P < .001). Binary logistic regression analyses including neutrophil, lymphocyte, eosinophil, basophil and monocyte counts showed that absolute eosinopenia was an independent factor associated with 4-weeks mortality, need for intensive respiratory support and hospital discharge.Conclusions: Absolute eosinopenia is associated with clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and might be used as a marker to discriminate patients with unfavourable prognosis. How to cite this article: Cazzaniga M, Fumagalli LAM, D'angelo L, et al. Eosinopenia is a reliable marker of severe disease and unfavourable outcome in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

PurposeThis paper aims to develop a deep characterization of PA‐Al2O3 composite for selective laser sintering (SLS). Tension test is used to determine main mechanical characteristics of the material, both at room temperature and at 100°C. An accurate knowledge of the parts' performances as a function of the building orientation, is fundamental to understand the manufacturing anisotropy. Particular attention is dedicated to the joining and failure micromechanisms ruling the macroscopic characteristics, on the basis of the knowledge developed by the authors on SLS of both metal and polymeric powders.Design/methodology/approachSpecimens have been built with different orientations in regard to powder deposition plane and laser path. Tension test is used to determine main mechanical characteristics of the material, both at room temperature and at 100°C. A particular attention is dedicated to the joining and failure micromechanisms ruling the macroscopic characteristics of the composite material by means of optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations.FindingsThe sintered material shows an evident anisotropy in the growth direction (z‐axis), as well as it seems to be not sensitive to the sintering direction at room temperature (x, y, xy). At 100°C the effect of sintering direction becomes more evident and a different behaviour results considering x‐ and y‐direction, respectively. Accurate SEM characterization has been carried out to understand the effect of the manufacturing anisotropy on the mechanical performances, both in terms of additive construction and laser sintering strategy. The observation of the rupture surfaces showed that cracks originate from the external surface and propagate initially by the ductile failure of the polymeric matrix, up to the sudden fracture of the whole section.Originality/valuePrevious studies concerning polyamide charged parts confirm the importance of fabrication parameters and geometry on the final performances, due to anisotropic heat supply and transfer phenomena. The originality of the paper is in the investigation on both at room temperature and at 100°C. Moreover, a model is proposed where it is hypothesized that the layer‐by‐layer construction is only marginally responsible of the anisotropic behaviour of the material.

The present research studied the effects of feeding diets containing different doses of glucan on stress prevention in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Different concentrations of glucan (0, 0.1, 0.5 or 1.0%) were administered to the fish over a 4-week period, then the fish were stressed by being transported for 2h. The effect of stress on the efficiency of the immune response was studied by measuring alterations of the following parameters: number and composition of the leucocyte population, phagocytosis and respiratory burst activity. At the end of the treatment, glucan-fed trout had increased levels of phagocytosis and oxidative radical production, but the data could not be correlated with the different dietary concentrations of glucan. Respiratory burst and phagocytosis appeared significantly reduced in stressed groups. The reduction was more evident in the control group, but no differences were detected between groups fed different diets. Transportation stress increased phagocytosis activity, but for control fish and fish fed 1.0% glucan it did not reach the levels observed before stress. Feeding glucan apparently induced a slight degeneration of the epithelial cells in the stomach and gut mucosae

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