Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website.Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre -including this research content -immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
Background: Nearly 30,000 patients with coronavirus disease-2019 have been hospitalized in New York City as of April 14 th , 2020. Data on the epidemiology, clinical course, and outcomes of critically ill patients with COVID-19 in this setting are needed.
Methods:We prospectively collected clinical, biomarker, and treatment data on critically ill adults with laboratory-confirmed-COVID-19 admitted to two hospitals in northern Manhattan between March 2 nd and April 1 st , 2020. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality.Secondary outcomes included frequency and duration of invasive mechanical ventilation, frequency of vasopressor use and renal-replacement-therapy, and time to clinical deterioration following hospital admission. The relationship between clinical risk factors, biomarkers, and inhospital mortality was modeled using Cox-proportional-hazards regression. Each patient had at least 14 days of observation.
Results:Of 1,150 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 during the study period, 257 (22%) were critically ill. The median age was 62 years (interquartile range [IQR] 51-72); 170 (66%) were male. Two-hundred twelve (82%) had at least one chronic illness, the most common of which were hypertension (63%; 162/257) and diabetes mellitus (36%; 92/257). One-hundred-thirtyeight patients (54%) were obese, and 13 (5%) were healthcare workers. As of April 14 th , 2020, in-hospital mortality was 33% (86/257); 47% (122/257) of patients remained hospitalized. Twohundred-one (79%) patients received invasive mechanical ventilation (median 13 days [IQR 9-17]), and 54% (138/257) and 29% (75/257) required vasopressors and renal-replacementtherapy, respectively. The median time to clinical deterioration following hospital admission was 3 days (IQR 1-6). Older age, hypertension, chronic lung disease, and higher concentrations of interleukin-6 and d-dimer at admission were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.(which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.
What does this study add to the field?Using latent class analysis (LCA), we identified two subgroups among a cohort of 483 patients with COVID-19-related ARDS. Class 2 patients had higher inflammatory markers and lactate and corresponded with the previously identified hyperinflammatory subphenotype, whereas Class 1 corresponded with the hypoinflammatory subphenotype. Class 2 had significantly higher 90-day mortality compared with Class 1 (75% vs 48%; p<0•0001). Differential response to corticosteroid treatment was observed, with decreased mortality in steroid-treated patients in Class 2 but not Class 1. SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction cycle threshold was a predictor of mortality in Class 1, but not Class 2, suggesting distinct drivers of mortality among classes.
Rationale:The determinants of immunoglobulin G (IgG) level and the risk of hypogammaglobulinemia (HGG) in patients with severe lung disease before and after lung transplantation are unknown. Objectives: We aimed to identify predictors of low IgG levels before and after lung transplantation. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 40 consecutive lung transplant recipients at our center. Total IgG levels were measured before and serially after transplantation. Mild HGG was defined as IgG levels from 400-699 mg/dl; severe HGG was defined as IgG levels Ͻ 400 mg/dl. Measurements and Main Results: Before transplantation, six (15%) patients had mild HGG, and none had severe HGG. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had lower IgG levels compared with patients with other diseases (independent of corticosteroid use and age; p ϭ 0.001) and an increased risk of mild HGG (p ϭ 0.005). The cumulative incidences of mild and severe HGG significantly increased after transplantation (58 and 15%, respectively, both p Ͻ 0.04 compared with pretransplant prevalences). Lower pretransplant IgG level and treatment with mycophenolate mofetil were associated with lower IgG levels after transplantation (both p Ͻ 0.05). Only lower pretransplant IgG levels were significantly associated with an increased risk of severe HGG after transplantation (p ϭ 0.02). Conclusions: Mild HGG is common in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the incidences of mild and severe HGG increase significantly early after lung transplantation. Baseline IgG levels and treatment with mycophenolate mofetil affect post-transplant IgG levels.
Keywords: hypogammaglobulinemia; immunosuppression; infection; lung transplantationLung transplantation is a therapeutic option for patients with advanced lung disease (1). However, despite recent improvements in short-term outcomes, the 5-yr survival rate remains suboptimal (2). Infections due to bacterial and nonbacterial pathogens result in frequent antibiotic use, hospitalization, and graft dysfunction and account for 26% of all post-transplantation deaths (3). The disproportionate impact of infections in lung transplant recipients compared with that in other solid organ recipients likely results from several factors. Higher levels of immunosuppression; exposure of the lung allograft to the ambient, nonsterile environment and (in single lung transplantation) the native lung; and impairment of the usual microorganism clearance mechanisms contribute to the increased risk of respira-
Patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD generally receive adequate hospital care, but there may be opportunities to improve care pharmacologically and with smoking cessation counseling and vaccination during and after hospitalization.
Purpose
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with high rates of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Prone positioning improves mortality in moderate-to-severe ARDS. Strategies to increase prone positioning under crisis conditions are needed.
Material and methods
We describe the development of a mobile prone team during the height of the crisis in New York City and describe characteristics and outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients who received prone positioning between April 2, 2020 and April 30, 2020.
Results
Ninety patients underwent prone positioning for moderate-to-severe ARDS. Sixty-six patients (73.3%) were men, with a median age of 64 years (IQR 53–71), and the median PaO
2
:FiO
2
ratio was 107 (IQR 85–140) prior to prone positioning. Patients required an average of 3 ± 2.2 prone sessions and the median time of each prone session was 19 h (IQR 17.5–20.75). By the end of the study period, proning was discontinued in sixty-seven (65.1%) cases due to clinical improvement, twenty (19.4%) cases due to lack of clinical improvement, six (5.8%) cases for clinical worsening, and ten (9.7%) cases due to a contraindication.
Conclusion
The rapid development of a mobile prone team safely provided prone positioning to a large number of COVID-19 patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.