Identification of Gene Signatures Associated with COVID-19 across Children, Adolescents, and Adults in the Nasopharynx and Peripheral Blood by Using a Machine Learning Approach.

Decision letter: SARS-CoV-2 shedding dynamics across the respiratory tract, sex, and disease severity for adult and pediatric COVID-19

Medical features of COVID-19 and influenza infection: A comparative study in Paris, France

Evidence of potent humoral immune activity in COVID-19-infected kidney transplant recipients.

Firefighters and COVID-19: An Occupational Health Perspective.

Interpretation of the 7th edition of the “diagnosis and treatment guidelines of coronavirus disease 2019 in China”: Progress and challenges

Current Knowledge and Research Priorities in the Digestive Manifestations of COVID-19

Anticoagulation as secondary prevention of massive lung thromboses in hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Woolcott, Orison O., and Richard N. Bergman. Mortality attributed to COVID-19 in high-altitude populations. High Alt Med Biol. 21:409-416, 2020. Background: Since partial oxygen pressure decreases as altitude increases, environmental hypoxia could worsen Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient's hypoxemia. We compared COVID-19 mortality at different altitudes. Methods: Retrospective analysis of population-level data on COVID-19 deaths was conducted in the United States (1,016 counties) and Mexico (567 municipalities). Mixed-model Poisson regression analysis of the association between altitude and COVID-19 mortality was conducted using individual-level data from 40,168 Mexican subjects with COVID-19, adjusting for multiple covariates. Results: Between January 20 and April 13, 2020, mortality rates were higher in U.S. counties located at ≥2,000 m elevation versus those located <1,500 m (12.3 vs. 3.2 per 100,000; p < 0.001). In Mexico, between March 13 and May 13, 2020, mortality rates were higher in municipalities located at ≥2,000 m versus those located <1,500 m (5.3 vs. 3.9 per 100,000; p < 0.001). Among Mexican subjects younger than 65 years, the risk of death was 36% higher in those living at ≥2,000 m versus those living at <1,500 m (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR]: 1.36; confidence interval [95% CI], 1.05-1.78; p = 0.022). Among Mexican men, the risk of death was 31% higher at ≥2,000 m versus that at <1,500 m (adjusted IRR: 1.31; 95% CI, 1.03-1.66; p = 0.025). No association between altitude and COVID-19 mortality was found among Mexican women or among Mexican subjects 65 years of age and older. Conclusions: Altitude is associated with COVID-19 mortality in men younger than 65 years.

To the Editor: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is widely spread and poses a critical threat to global health.1 Prominent changes in coagulation function in severe patients of COVID-19 have been reported in a recent study.2 Therefore, we conducted this quantitative meta-analysis to explore the difference in blood coagulation parameters between severe and mild cases of COVID-19. Literature published from December 1, 2019 to March 30, 2020 was searched systematically using PubMed and Embase without language limits. The keywords were: coronavirus, laboratory, clinical manifestations, clinical characteristics, and clinical features. All documents comparing information on coagulation parameters between mild and severe cases of COVID-19 patients were finally referred to in our meta-analysis. The pooled standardised mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed by applying the random-effect model using Stata software (STATA 14.0, Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA). The study quality was measured by adopting an 11-item checklist, which was suggested by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Table I displays the main characteristics of the included studies. Nine studies, including one study from medRxiv, with 1105 patients were eventually included for detailed evaluation. Platelet count (PLT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT) and D-dimer (D-D) levels were available in five, six, six and eight studies, respectively. All the studies were conducted in China. Quality score varied from 3 to 7 points, with a mean of 5·4 (Table I). All the studies were of moderate quality, except one of low quality. The main difference in coagulation function between severe and mild COVID-19 patients is shown in Fig 1. Pooled results revealed that PT and D-D levels were significantly higher in patients with severe COVID-19 (0·68, 95% CI = 0·43–0·93, I2 = 53·7%; 0·53, 95% CI = 0·22–0·84, I2 = 78·9%, respectively). However, no significant difference in PLT and APTT values between severe and mild patients was observed (−0·08, 95% CI = −0·34 to 0·18, I2 = 60·5%; −0·03, 95% CI = −0·40 to 0·34, I2 = 79·5%, respectively). Increasing values of D-D and PT support the notion that disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) may be common in COVID-19 patients.2 In addition, the rise of D-D level also indicates secondary fibrinolysis conditions in these patients. According to Berri et al.,3 fibrin clot formation helps people to fight against influenza virus infections. Hence, fibrinolysis may potentially induce following severe COVID-19 infection. Future studies should aim to discover more biomarkers of severe cases of COVID-19, and studies exploring the underlying mechanism of deranged coagulation function in COVID-19 are urgently needed. The haemostatic system might be explored for underlying treatment against coronavirus. Due to the lack of sufficient study data, we cannot perform a more thorough analysis to prove beneficial screening parameters for PLT, APTT, PT and D-D for prediction of severity of COVID-19. However, we suggest that clinical practitioners pay attention to the changes in coagulation function in COVID-19 patients on a daily basis.

Pharmacokinetics of Lopinavir and Ritonavir in Patients Hospitalized With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Targeting the Gut Microbiota in Coronavirus Disease 2019: Hype or Hope?

Analysis of hematological indexes of COVID-19 patients from fever clinics in Suzhou, China.

The ‘third wave’: impending cognitive and functional decline in COVID-19 survivors

Asthma prolongs intubation in COVID-19

The Right Ventricle in COVID-19 Lung Injury: Proposed Mechanisms, Management, and Research Gaps