Prognostic characteristics inform risk stratification in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We obtained blood samples (n = 474) from hospitalized COVID-19 patients (n = 123), non-COVID-19 ICU sepsis patients (n = 25) and healthy controls (n = 30). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA was detected in plasma or serum (RNAemia) of COVID-19 ICU patients when neutralizing antibody response was low. RNAemia is associated with higher 28-day ICU mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.84 [95% CI, 1.22–2.77] adjusted for age and sex). RNAemia is comparable in performance to the best protein predictors. Mannose binding lectin 2 and pentraxin-3 (PTX3), two activators of the complement pathway of the innate immune system, are positively associated with mortality. Machine learning identified ‘Age, RNAemia’ and ‘Age, PTX3’ as the best binary signatures associated with 28-day ICU mortality. In longitudinal comparisons, COVID-19 ICU patients have a distinct proteomic trajectory associated with mortality, with recovery of many liver-derived proteins indicating survival. Finally, proteins of the complement system and galectin-3-binding protein (LGALS3BP) are identified as interaction partners of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. LGALS3BP overexpression inhibits spike-pseudoparticle uptake and spike-induced cell-cell fusion in vitro.

No abstract

Haemoptysis is a potentially life-threatening condition with the need for prompt diagnosis. In about 10-20% of all cases the bleeding source remains unexplained with the standard diagnostic approach. The aim of this article is to show the necessity of widening the diagnostic approach to haemoptysis with consideration of pulmonary venous stenosis as a possible cause of even severe haemoptysis and haemoptoe.A review of the literature was performed using the Medline/PubMed database with the terms: ''pulmonary venous stenosis'', ''pulmonary venous infarction'' and ''haemoptysis''. Further references from the case reports were considered.58 case reports and case collections about patients with haemoptysis due to pulmonary venous stenosis were detected. This review gives an overview about the case reports and discusses the underlying pathophysiology and the pros and cons of different imaging techniques for the detection of pulmonary venous stenosis.Several conditions predispose to the obstruction of the mediastinal pulmonary veins. Clinical findings are unspecific and may be misleading. Pulmonary venous stenosis can be detected using several imaging techniques, yet three-dimensional magnetic resonance-angiography and three-dimensional contrastenhanced computed tomography are the most appropriate. Pulmonary venous stenosis should be considered in patients with haemoptysis. @ERSpublications Pulmonary venous stenosis should be considered in haemoptysis and is best diagnosed using CT or MRI venography http://ow.ly/tMPFP

Background: Nasal high-flow oxygen therapy (HFOT) is a novel treatment option for patients suffering from acute or chronic respiratory failure. Aim of our study was to compare safety and efficacy of HFOT with those of conventional oxygen treatment (COT) in normo-and hypercapnic COPD patients. Methods: A single cohort of 77 clinically stable hypoxemic patients with an indication for long-term oxygen treatment (LTOT) with or without hypercapnia successively received COT and HFOT for 60 min each, including oxygen adaption and separated by a 30 min washout phase. Results: HFOT was well-tolerated in all patients. A significant decrease in PaCO 2 was observed during oxygen adaption of HFOT, and increased PaO 2 coincided with significantly increased SpO 2 and decreased AaDO 2 during both treatment phases. Even at a flow rate of 15 L/min, oxygen requirement delivered as air mixture by HFOT tended to be lower than that of COT (2.2 L/min). Not only was no increase in static or dynamic lung volumes observed during HFOT, but even was a significant reduction of residual lung volume measured in 36 patients (28%).

Introduction: Arterial hypertension is the most frequent cause for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) and may also cause left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We sought to analyze whether hypertensive sICH etiology is associated with LVH. Methods: We analyzed consecutive patients with sICH who were admitted to our tertiary stroke center during a four-year period and underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) as part of the diagnostic work-up. We defined hypertensive sICH as typical localization of hemorrhage in patients with arterial hypertension and no other identified sICH etiology. We defined an increased end-diastolic interventricular septal wall thickness of ≥11 mm on TTE as a surrogate parameter for LVH. Results: Among 395 patients with sICH, 260 patients (65.8%) received TTE as part of their diagnostic work-up. The median age was 71 years (interquartile range (IQR) 17), 160 patients (61.5%) were male, the median baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 8 (IQR 13). Of these, 159 (61.2%) patients had a hypertensive sICH and 156 patients (60%) had LVH. In univariable (113/159 (71.1%) vs. 43/101 (42.6%); odds ratio (OR) 3.31; 95% confidence interval (CI95%) 1.97–5.62); and multivariable (adjusted OR 2.95; CI95% 1.29–6.74) analysis, hypertensive sICH was associated with LVH. Conclusions: In patients with sICH, LVH is associated with hypertensive bleeding etiology. Performing TTE is meaningful for diagnosis of comorbidities and clarification of bleeding etiology in these patients. Future studies should include long-term outcome parameters and assess left ventricular mass as main indicator for LVH.