on behalf of the COCO-OLD Study group. Writing committee, Methodology and statistics, Centres (alphabetically), 14-Day survival among older adults with severe SARS-Cov2 infection treated with corticosteroid: a cohort study, Clinical Microbiology and Infection,
.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of pulmonary embolism in returning travelers with hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19. All returning travelers to Reunion Island with hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19 underwent computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and were included in the cohort. Thirty-five patients were returning travelers with hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19 and had recently returned from one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak (mainly from France and Comoros archipelago). Five patients (14.3%) were found to have pulmonary embolism and two (5.9%) were incidentally found to have deep vein thrombosis on CTPA. Patients with pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis had higher D-dimer levels than those without pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis (
P
= 0.04). Returning travelers with hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19 should be systematically screened for pulmonary embolism.
This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of co-infection with different types of pathogens in patients with hypoxemic pneumonia due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Reunion Island.
This observational study using a prospectively collected database of hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19 cases was conducted at Félix Guyon University Hospital in Reunion Island, France.
Between 18 March 2020 and 15 April 2020, 156 patients were admitted to our hospital for COVID-19. A total of 36 patients had hypoxemic pneumonia (23.1%) due to COVID-19. Thirty of these cases (83.3%) were imported by travelers returning mainly from metropolitan France and Spain. Patients were screened for co-infection with other pathogens at admission: 31 (86.1%) by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 16 (44.4%) by cytobacteriological examination of sputum culture. Five patients (13.9%) were found to have co-infection: 1 with influenza virus A H1N1 (pdm09) associated with
Branhamella catarrhalis
, 1 with
Streptococcus pneumoniae
associated with
Haemophilus influenzae
, 1 with Human Coronavirus 229E, 1 with Rhinovirus, and 1 with methicillin-susceptible
Staphylococcus aureus
. Patients with co-infection had higher D-dimer levels than those without co-infection (1.36 [1.34–2.36] μg/mL vs 0.63 [0.51–1.12] μg/mL,
P
= .05).
The incidence of co-infection in our cohort was higher than expected (13.9%). Three co-infections (with influenza virus A(H1N1) pdm09,
Streptococcus pneumoniae
, and
Staphylococcus aureus
) required specific treatment. Patients with hypoxemic pneumonia due to COVID-19 should be screened for co-infection using respiratory cultures or multiplex PCR. Whilst our study has a number of limitations, the results from our study suggest that in the absence of screening, patients should be commenced on treatment for co-infection in the presence of an elevated D-dimer.
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