Clinical predictors of late SARS‐CoV‐2 positivity in Italian internal medicine wards

Chest X‐ray severity score Brixia: From marker of early COVID‐19 infection to predictor of worse outcome in internal medicine wards

“…Brixia score was then consecutively assessed in the first 283 enrolled patients (Figure S1). Clinical and biochemical data performed at ED admission have been collected from hospital records, as previously described 3 . The present study was approved by the local ethics board of IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino (200/2020 – DB id 10,515).…”

“…A growing literature is focusing on a post‐COVID‐19 pandemic—likely endemic—world, with a call for the next pandemic 1 . Early in the forerunner countries, preventing and identifying early in‐hospital COVID‐19 positivity was one of the leading challenges and required a substantial step forward in hospital management and patient care 2,3 . Here, we focused on radiological assessment performed at ED admission during the first pandemic wave.…”

Managing a SARS‐CoV‐2–free Hospital Unit of Internal Medicine to avoid in‐hospital clusters

“…A major pitfall of such strategy was immediately identified in the rather long time of COVID‐19 incubation, which may hamper the allocation of patients to the correct and safe pathways. This issue was previously investigated by our research group in a recently published article in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation (EJCI), reporting clinical and laboratory variables useful to predict late in‐hospital SARS‐CoV‐2 positivity 3 . Such patients—admitted at the ED as negative at the first test—were then found positive for the virus during short‐term follow‐up testing, when they already passed the filter ‘grey’ zones.…”

“…Paolo Barbera 2 Nicholas Bardi 1 Marta Sessarego 1 Riccardo Papalia 1 Federico Carbone 1,3 Luca Liberale…”

Predicting mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients

“…An early risk stratification might help in differentiating patients at higher risk of severe disease to provide an adequate care. Several anamnestic, clinical, and blood sample findings were previously reported to associate with a negative outcome, including obesity and metabolic syndrome [1], hypertension [2], inflammatory biomarkers [3], procalcitonin and D-dimer [4], impaired coagulation [5], and even the amount of time spent in the intensive care unit [6]. However, to date none of these emerged above the others.…”