Background: Since March 2020, Ireland has experienced an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To date, while several cohorts from China have been described, our understanding is limited, with no data describing the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Ireland. To improve our understanding of the clinical characteristics of this emerging infection we carried out a retrospective review of patient data to examine the clinical characteristics of patients admitted for COVID-19 hospital treatment. Methods: Demographic, clinical and laboratory data on the rst 100 adult patients admitted to Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH) for in-patient COVID-19 treatment after onset of the outbreak in March 2020 was extracted from clinical and administrative records. Missing data were excluded from the analysis. Results: Fifty-eight per cent were male, 63% were Irish nationals, 29% were GMS eligible, and median age was 45 years (interquartile range [IQR] =34-64 years). Patients had symptoms for a median of ve days before diagnosis (IQR=2.5-7 days), most commonly cough (72%), fever (65%), dyspnoea (37%), fatigue (28%), myalgia (27%) and headache (24%). Of all cases, 54 had at least one pre-existing chronic illness (most commonly hypertension, diabetes mellitus or asthma). At initial assessment, the most common abnormal ndings were: C-reactive protein >7.0mg/L (74%), ferritin >247μg/L (women) or >275μg/L (men) (62%), D-dimer >0.5μg/dL (62%), chest imaging (59%), NEWS Score (modi ed) of ≥3 (55%) and heart rate >90/min (51%). Twenty-seven required supplemental oxygen, of which 17 were admitted to the intensive care unit-14 requiring ventilation. Forty received antiviral treatment (most commonly hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir/ritonavir). Four died, 17 were admitted to intensive care, and 74 were discharged home, with nine days the median hospital stay (IQR=6-11). Conclusion: Our ndings reinforce the emerging consensus of COVID-19 as an acute life-threatening disease and highlights, the importance of laboratory (ferritin, C-reactive protein, D-dimer) and radiological parameters, in addition to clinical parameters. Further cohort studies involving larger samples followed longitudinally are a priority.

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Rationale: Many clinical studies have focused on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of inpatients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, there are few reports about the clinical follow-up of discharged patients. Objectives: To describe the follow-up of patients with COVID-19 in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang, China. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 4-week follow-ups in patients with COVID-19, including computed tomographic (CT) chest scanning, blood testing, and oropharyngeal-swab testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ribonucleic acid. The chest CT scans and blood tests were performed on the last day before discharge and 2 weeks and 4 weeks after discharge. The oropharyngeal-swab tests were performed at both 1 week and 2 weeks after discharge. Fifty-one patients with common COVID-19 were enrolled in the study. All the CT and clinical data were collected between January 23 and March 28, 2020. Results: Compared with the abnormalities found on the the last CT scans before discharge, the abnormalities in the lungs at the first and second follow-ups after discharge had been gradually absorbed. The cases with focal ground-glass opacity were reduced from 17.7% to 9.8% of cases. The cases with multiple ground-glass opacities decreased from 80.4% to 23.5%. The cases with consolidation were reduced from 49.0% to 2.0%. The cases with interlobular septal thickening were reduced from 80.4% to 35.3%. The cases with subpleural lines were reduced from 29.4% to 7.8%. The cases with irregular lines were reduced from 41.2% to 15.7%. The lung lesions of 25.5% patients were shown to be fully absorbed on the first CT scans after discharge, and the rate of lung recovery increased to 64.7% after the second follow-up. Nucleic-acid test results became recurrently positive in 17.6% of discharged patients, of whom only 33.3% complained of clinical symptoms. There were no differences in the characteristics of the last CT scans before discharge between the patients with recurrently positive test results and the patients with negative test results. The lung damage was fully absorbed in 55.6% of discharged patients with recurrence of positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid. Conclusions: The lung damage due to COVID-19 could be reversible for patients with common COVID-19. A few cases showed recurring positive results of nucleic-acid tests after discharge.

Kimura disease (KD) is a rare, chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause and is characterized by painless s.c. swellings and lymphadenopathy commonly affecting the head and neck region. Much therapeutics has been used to treat KD, but is not satisfactory because of frequent relapse. Imatinib has been reported previously to be useful for treatment of hypereosinophilic syndrome and may work by selectively blocking protein-tyrosine kinases, such as platelet-derived growth factor receptor, and c-Kit. We carried out immunohistochemical examination of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha and c-Kit in tissues from patients with KD. The results were positive and suggested that Imatinib might be an effective drug for the treatment of the disease. We have also briefly reviewed the epidemiology, aetiology, clinical manifestations, laboratory and pathological examinations, differential diagnoses, treatment and prognosis of KD in this manuscript.