Clinical Symptoms Of COVID-19 Research Articles

Assessment of consequences of COVID-19 in adolescents by the method of questionnaire

Background. In Russia, of all detected cases of COVID-19, 18 % were in the pediatric population. According to a number of studies, adolescents develop long-term clinical and psychological consequences after an illness. Therefore, at present, the most relevant is a thorough study of the structure and severity of consequences of COVID-19 in adolescents.The aim of the research was to assess the severity of consequences of COVID-19 in adolescents depending on the time period after diseases.Methods. The sample included 96  people aged 11–16  years: 48  adolescents who  have  undergone COVID-19 (main group); 48  adolescents who  did  not  have  COVID-19 (control group). The main group was divided into six subgroups, depending on the period after COVID-19. The following research methods were used: clinical history using a standardized interview method; “Correction test” method by B.  Bourdon; Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI-1A); Adolescent’s Form of Manifest Anxiety Scale by A.M. Prikhozhan.Results. Clinical symptoms of COVID-19 during the acute phase of the disease were considered in adolescents. It has been established that the most common symptoms include fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, severe fatigue, impaired sense of smell, impaired taste, headache (most often localized in the frontal region). Clinical and psychological symptoms characteristic of post-COVID syndrome were considered as consequences of COVID-19 in adolescents. The majority of the  examined adolescents showed the following clinical symptoms of COVID-19 after discharge: asthenia, disturbances of smell and taste; lasting from 2 to  64 weeks. As psychological symptoms, adolescents were characterized by reduced attention span, reduced speed of information processing and concentration, as well as the presence of symptoms of severe depression and high anxiety. During the second month after COVID-19, the most unfavorable emotional state was revealed in adolescents.Conclusions. The data obtained made it possible to determine that post-COVID syndrome in adolescents is characterized by the presence of an asthenic condition, impaired attention, high anxiety, severe depressive symptoms.

Association between Cyclic Threshold Values and Clinical Symptoms in Patients with COVID-19 at Teaching Hospital, Jumla, Karnali, Nepal

Introduction: The cyclic threshold (CT) value obtained in the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been used as the surrogate marker of viral load. Therefore, to understand viral kinetics and evaluate the disease severity with clinical symptoms, it is necessary to evaluate cyclic threshold value in COVID-19-infected patients.
 Aims: To assess association between cyclic threshold value and clinical symptoms in patients with COVID-19.
 Methods: A descriptive cross- sectional study was conducted on PCR-positive patients (n=208) for six months at Karnali Academy of Health Science, Teaching Hospital Jumla. The RT-PCR was performed and data of the cyclic threshold value of PCR-positive patients was taken from the laboratory in predesigned study proforma. Data entry and analysis were done in SPSS version 20.0.
 Results: A larger proportion of females (65.9%) than males (43.1%) had a COVID-19 infection symptoms of COVID-19 were present in about equal numbers of infected males (61%) and females (68.7%). Most of the individuals were in the age range of 19 to 39 years.  A cyclic threshold value of less than 30 was present in the majority (49%) of patients. Symptoms were present in 65.9% of individuals. Symptoms were present in a large proportion of subjects with cyclic threshold values of 1–19 and 20–29, at 89.5% and 77.9%, respectively.
 Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the association between cyclic threshold values and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in patients. It also explores the underlying factors like gender disparities and age-specific disease severity. Patients showing symptoms of COVID-19 typically had a cyclic threshold value below 30 and carry a higher amount of the virus compared to those who don't show symptoms. The association between signs and symptoms and the cyclic threshold is highly significant.

FEATURES OF CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF COVID-19 IN CHILDREN OF THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

During the 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of children, including children of the first year of life, increased in the structure of cases. The aim of the study is to study the features of COVID-19 in children of the first year of life during the period of active involvement of children of this age in the epidemic process. The article presents a comparative analysis of the clinical and laboratory features of COVID-19 in two observation groups: 49 children aged 1 month to one year and 61 children aged one to 10 years. Clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in infants in most cases are characterized by moderate catarrhal manifestations, normal or subfebrile temperature, absence of clinical signs of lower respiratory tract lesions and respiratory failure. According to CT scans of the chest organs, almost half of the children have lung tissue damage (mainly CT-1). According to the results of laboratory examination, the majority of patients (51-82%) have an increase and long-term preservation of pathological parameters of intracellular enzymes (ASAT, CPK, especially LDH) up to 2-3 norms, blood lactate, D-dimer. Thus, there is a discrepancy between the clinical manifestations of the disease and the detected laboratory parameters.

Clinical symptoms of COVID-19 among tobacco users in Moradabad city, India: A retrospective observational study

Background: Tobacco is one of the leading risk factors for many respiratory infections and is linked to the clinical severity of the disease. COVID-19 primarily infects the lungs and causes severe pneumonia-like illness. Tobacco consumption may thus, increase the risk for developing COVID-19. However, this study was planned to assess the tobacco consumption among COVID-19 patients and determine the relationship between SARS CoV-2 and tobacco use among COVID-19 patients. Methods: Lists of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 positive patients aged 18-70 years were obtained from District Government Hospital on November 2020 and were interviewed telephonically after taking informed consent. A total of 470 patients under home isolation for the past one month after getting diagnosed with SARS CoV-2 were recruited in this study. Data was entered in MS Excel 2019 (Microsoft Corp.) and analysis was done using SPSS 25 (IBM Inc.). Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test were used and significance level was set 0.05 with 95% confidence interval. Results: In the present study, the mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 37.8 (12.1) years. Among the COVID-19 patients, 21% of participants were tobacco users. Clinical symptoms such as fever, severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), acute respiratory illness (ARI), loss of taste/smell, and other symptoms such as body-ache, myalgia, nasal secretion and flue like symptoms were presented; of which most common symptoms were fever (26.8%) followed by SARI or ARI (11.5%) and significantly presented more among tobacco users (66.3%) than non-tobacco users (55.6%) (P=0.036). Nonetheless smokers, these symptoms also affected significantly SLT users (64.8%) (P=0.029) and dual tobacco users (100%) (P=0.010). Conclusion: Tobacco use may worsen COVID-19 disease symptoms among COVID-19 patients.

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Challenges in Low Income Families During Covid-19 in Selected Slum Areas of Mehsana District

Introduction: The current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19; previously 2019-nCoV) has reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by newly discovered coronavirus. The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are identified as fever, cough, sneezing, sore throat and fatigue, other diarrhea and acute respiratory distress. The COVID-19 transmission occurs from person-to-person. The WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020. These were decision of governments to drastically restrict peoples movements by lockdown strategy. To closing businesses, schools, universities, public events and others (lock down strategy) in order to enable the health services to cope with the large number of severe cases. So the Vulnerable groups (workers in the informal sector, small businesses, migrant workers, refugees, homeless, and others) have the highest burden of the pandemic, economical and social impact. Research Approach: Quantitative approach. Research Design: Exploratory descriptive research design. Participants: 200 low income families in slum areas were selected by using non probability convenience sampling technique. TOOLS: Check list. RESULT: Challenges in low income families during COVID-19, 6 (3%) families had mild challenges, 27 (13.5%) had moderate challenges and 167 (83.5%) had severe challenges. Mean of challenges scores 17.35, mean percentage was 8.655% and standard deviation was 3.965. Chi-square test used to associate the level of challenges with their selected demographic variables at 0.05 level of significant. CONCLUSION: Statistical evidence proved that by the lockdown here the challenges are more in low income families during COVID-19 in slum areas.

Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of COVID-19 in Persons Living with HIV Complicated by Tuberculosis

Relevance. At present, three infections – HIV infection, tuberculosis, and COVID-19 - are spreading simultaneously in the world. Of great practical importance is the assessment of clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19 in HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis, COVID-19. Aim. To study the risk of COVID-19 disease and identify clinical and epidemiological features in and population of patients with HIV infection complicated by tuberculosis in comparison with patients with HIV infection and the population without these diseases.Materials and methods. Since 13.03.2020 by 31.12.2021 in the Kemerovo Region-Kuzbass, a continuous prospective analytical epidemiological study of the case-control type was performed. Of those with COVID-19, two observation groups were formed: group I (HIV +), group II (HIV/TB) and comparison group III (persons without either HIV or tuberculosis). All patients underwent: determination of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, standard examination methods in accordance with the temporary methodological recommendations «Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)», relevant at the time of treatment.Results. The incidence of COVID-19 among patients with HIV infection complicated by tuberculosis exceeded the incidence of COVID-19 among HIV-infected by 14%. There were no gender differences between patients I (HIV +) and II (HIV/TB) groups. In the comparison group, the incidence of COVID-19 was 1.26 times higher in women compared to men. COVID-19 disease in patients with co-infection (HIV/TB) was predominantly mild. Viral pneumonia developed 1.86 times less often, oxygenotherapy was required only in 18.75% of cases, which is 2.5 times lower than in group I (HIV +) and 2.47 times less than in the comparison group (III). In labeled pairs, clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in all groups occurred with the same frequency. Metabolic disorders were evident in all groups. Co-infected patients (HIV/TB) had higher levels of D-dimer, ESR, total bilirubin.Conclusion. Active tuberculosis in HIV-infected people is a factor that increases the risk of COVID-19 disease without affecting the severity of the infectious process.

COVID-19 pandemic in low-risk pregnant women in 2020-2022: disease confounders and clinical characteristics

Aim. To identify confounders and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in low-risk pregnant women during the pandemics from 2020 to 2022.Materials and Methods. The study included pregnant women with COVID-19: 1) those who have been admitted in October-December 2020 (n = 163); 2) those who have been admitted in May-August 2021 (n = 158); 3) those who have been admitted in January-February 2022 (n = 160). Patients in all groups were in the 3st trimester of gestation and were comparable in age (18–35 years), socioeconomic status, parity, body mass index, and had no established risk factors for COVID-19.Results. Iron deficiency anemia, tobacco smoking, and belonging to the East Asian ethnic group were recognized as reliable confounders for COVID-19 in pregnant women. In the 1st year of the pandemic, the most common symptoms were: loss of smell/taste (87.7%), somnolence (68,7%), and shortness of breath (68.1%). In the 2nd pandemic year, SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant more frequently resulted in fever above 38°C (19.6% vs 7.4%), pneumonia (61.4% vs 21.4%), respiratory failure (17.7% vs 4.9%), admission to intensive care unit (11.4% vs 6.4%), and invasive mechanical ventilation (1.89% vs 0). Symptoms of COVID-19 in the 3rd year of the pandemic were similar to those observed in seasonal acute respiratory viral infections: runny nose (66.7%) and cough (54.4%), whereas the cases of pneumonia were rare (3.8%).Conclusion. Among the most reliable confounders of COVID-19 in pregnant women without any risk factors in the 3rd trimester of gestation are iron deficiency anemia, tobacco smoking, and belonging to the East Asian ethnic group. Each SARS-CoV-2 variant provoked vastly different symptoms.

Multiplex Immunoassay Approaches Using Luminex® xMAP® Technology for the Study of COVID-19 Disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been one of the most severe outbreaks of respiratory illness in history. The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 may be similar to flu, although they can be life-threatening, particularly in the elderly and immunocompromised population. Together with nucleic acid detection, serological testing has been essential for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection but has been critically important for studying the epidemiology, serosurveillance, and for vaccine research and development. Multiplexed immunoassay technologies have a particular advantage as they can simultaneously measure multiple analytes from a single sample. xMAP technology is a multiplex analysis platform that can measure up to 500 analytes at the same time from the same sample. It has been shown to be an important tool for studying immune response to the various SARS-CoV-2 antigens, as well as for measuring host protein biomarker levels as prognostic indicators of COVID-19. In this chapter, we describe several key studies where xMAP technology was used for multiplexed analysis of SARS-COV-2 antibody responses and host protein expression in COVID-19 patients.

Clinical effectiveness of medical ozone therapy in COVID-19: the evidence and gaps map.

Ozone therapy (OT), a medical procedure, has been showing good results during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We aimed to build an evidence and gaps map (EGM) of OT in the COVID-19 ranking the articles found according to levels of evidence and outcomes. The EGM brings bubbles of different sizes and different colors according to the articles. The OT intervention used was major or minor autohemotherapy, rectal insufflation and ozonized saline solution. EGM was based on 13 clinical studies using OT for COVID-19 involving a total of 271 patients. We found 30 outcomes related to OT in COVID-19. Our EGM divided the outcomes into six groups: 1-clinical improvement; 2-hospitalization; 3-inflammatory, thromboembolic, infectious, or metabolic markers; 4-radiological aspects, 5-viral infection and 6-adverse events. Major autohemotherapy was present in 19 outcomes, followed by rectal insufflation. Improvement in clinical symptoms of COVID-19, improvement of respiratory function, improvement of oxygen saturation, reduction in hospital internment, decrease in C-reactive protein, decrease in ferritin, decrease in lactate dehydrogenase, decrease in interleukin 6, decrease in D-dimer, radiological improvement of lung lesions and absence of reported adverse events were related in the papers. The most commonly used concentrations of OT in major autohemotherapy and in rectal insufflation were 40 μg/mL and 35 μg/mL, respectively. Here, we bring the first EGM showing the efficacy and safety of OT in the treatment of COVID-19. OT can be used as integrative medical therapy in COVID-19 at a low cost and improve the health conditions of the patients.

Awareness and attitude of domestic workers toward COVID-19 and vaccination: a cross-sectional study

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected millions of the people all over the world as it was declared as a global pandemic by World Health Organization. The present investigation was conducted in Gejha village of Gautam Buddha Nagar to study the awareness and knowledge level of the domestic workers about COVID-19 and its prevention through vaccination.Methods: Total three hundred participants both male and female were selected for the study. A brief interview and group discussion were conducted with domestic workers and questionnaire was used during the study for analysis of their knowledge about COVID-19.Results: The present study revealed that approximately 98% respondents were aware about the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 and 94% respondents accepted that washing hands, wearing face mask and social distancing are essential to protect against COVID-19. Approximately 98% domestic workers showed their hesitancy for vaccination. They have raised doubts on the efficacy of vaccines and its side effects on health.Conclusions: To fight against pandemic, there is an urgent need of multidimensional approaches and coordinated efforts to address the misconceptions related with the safety and effectiveness of vaccines among the domestic workers.

A SINGLE-CENTRE RETROSPECTIVE AND OBSERVATIONAL INVESTIGATION ON THE MANIFESTATIONS OF COVID-19 ON CHEST HRCT IN THEPOPULATION OF ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

Background: The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in conjunction with chest high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) can give quick screening and determine the disease's severity. HRCT plays an important role in the evaluation and clinical management of COVID-19, which would benet from a more comprehensive overview of its clinical diagnosis and therapy. To dene the spectrum of HRCT results in Objective: COVID 19 individuals with symptoms and to connect HRCT ndings with clinical symptoms of the disease. A retrospective r Methods: esearch of 1513 COVID patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and positive RT-PCR test ndings; both sexes were included from the middle of March to the end of May 2021. The patients were separated into three age groups and their HRCT CT severity scores (CTSS) were evaluated. Different age groups' clinical symptoms were connected with the derived CTSS. Results: The average age of the patients was 50.14 percent, with 34% falling between the ages of 35 and 54. The majority of them had fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and headache, but other symptoms like sore throat, diarrhoea, nausea, anosmia, and chest discomfort were less common. In the current study, clinical characteristics had the strongest relationship with moderate CTSS. HRCT ndings include ground-glass opacity (GGO), consolidation, bronchovascular thickening, crazy paving look, subpleural bands/brosis, and bronchiectasis. In moderate and severe patient groups, the CTSS link with lung lobe distribution and gender was highly signicant. Bilateral lung distribution changes (83.6%) were more common in group 2 than central and peripheral distribution changes (70.5%), with lower lobe involvement in both genders. Conclusion: HRCT helps identify COVID-19's pulmonary symptoms in diagnosis and treatment. Imaging patterns depending on infection duration help understand pathophysiology and predict illness development and effects. This study may link clinical symptoms to CTSS and COVID-19 pulmonary changes. It could mean understanding the following wave's features and management. HRCT chest detects early parenchymal abnormalities, measures disease severity in all symptomatic patients, and diagnoses COVID infection regardless of RT-PCR status.

The Efficacy of Hot Footbath in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world from the end of 2019. Hot footbath is a simple ancient technique, which has been used to alleviate many disorders. We aimed to investigate the effect of hot footbath in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted in Iran with allocation ratio of 1:1, with final sample size of 35 patients in each group. The intervention group received hot footbath (immersion of feet into the hot water at 42 °C, 10 cm above the ankles for 20 minutes, and then kept warm for 5 minutes) once a day for a week, in addition to the conventional therapy. The control group received only the conventional therapy; the primary outcomes evaluated were fever, respiratory rate, cough, fatigue, and myalgia; whereas admission rate, ICU admission, and mortality were assessed as the secondary outcomes. Except for cough intensity, cough frequency and fatigue (p value < 0.05), no significant differences were observed between the two groups in the primary and secondary outcomes. No adverse events were reported. Hot footbath can be used as a non-invasive, highly acceptable, and complementary technique to alleviate COVID-19 patients without any needs to expensive or special equipment; nevertheless, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed so as to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of hot footbath on clinical symptoms of COVID-19.

Investigating the Relation between Meteorological Parameters and the Number of Patients and Clinical Symptoms of Outpatients with COVID-19: A Case Study in Abarkouh, Iran

Introduction: SARS CoV-2 pandemic has caused illness and death in millions of people worldwide. Extensive studies are being conducted on the effect of meteorological parameters on the number of patients and clinical symptoms of COVID-19.
 Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Abarkouh city with a population of 51199 people during 215 days (from April 20, 2020 to November 20, 2020).  The present study aimed to investigate the effect of meteorological parameters, such as temperature, humidity, sunshine hours, evaporation, and maximum wind speed on the number of cases with definite diagnosis of COVID-19. Moreover, symptoms in the infected patients were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression coefficient.
 Results: During the 215 days of the study, a total of 2526 symptoms were diagnosed in 1298 outpatients. Among which, fever and body aches were the most common symptoms in the subjects. The results of examining the relationship between meteorological parameters and the prevalence of symptoms showed that there was a negative correlation between the minimum and maximum temperature, sunshine hours, evaporation, and wind speed with the number of cases and the prevalence of symptoms. The results of regression coefficient also showed that among the meteorological parameters, the minimum temperature variable had the most negative effect on the prevalence of symptoms as well as the number of cases.
 Conclusion: The results showed that changing the meteorological parameters in cold weather can increase both the number of patients and clinical symptoms of outpatients with COVID-19.

COVID-19 patients at referral to hospital during the first peak of disease: Common clinical findings including myalgia and fatigue.

The wide range of manifestations and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 has made it a unique disease. Investigating the epidemiology of different clinical manifestations of this disease in patients referred to medical centers is one of the most effective steps in adopting a suitable diagnostic and treatment approach. These findings also provide a basis for comparing the evolution of the virus and its clinical manifestations over time and at different peaks of the disease. Therefore, the present study was aimed at investigating common clinical findings at the time of referral in patients with COVID-19 in Afzalipour Hospital, Kerman, during the first peak of the disease. This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed on hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19, between March 2020 and June 2020. The patients were included in the study by census method, and the research variables related to demographic indicators, disease course and clinical symptoms were extracted from the patients' medical records, and then subjected to statistical analysis. In this study, a total of 210 patients were examined, consisted mainly of male patients (59.5%). The mean age was found to be 53.95 ± 19.55 years. Also, 20.3% of patients needed admission in the intensive care unit. In addition, 1% of patients were infected in February 2020, 24% in March 2020, 47.4% in April 2020 and 27.4% in May 2020. The mean onset of symptoms until hospitalization was also found as 6.51 days. The most common clinical symptoms included shortness of breath (75.7%), dry cough (52.9%), fever (50.5%), myalgia (45.7%) and fatigue (41.9%). Fever at admission time was significantly more common in ages less than 50 years (p=0.034). Our study showed that the most common clinical symptoms were shortness of breath, dry cough, fever, myalgia and fatigue. No statistically significant difference was found in common symptoms between men and women. Among the common clinical symptoms, only fever at admission time was observed to be significantly higher in those under 50 years of age.

Genetic polymorphisms associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 disease and severity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Although advanced age and presence of comorbidities significantly impact the variation observed in the clinical symptoms of COVID-19, it has been suggested that genetic variants may also be involved in the disease. Thus, the aim of this study was to perform a systematic review with meta-analysis of the literature to identify genetic polymorphisms that are likely to contribute to COVID-19 pathogenesis. Pubmed, Embase and GWAS Catalog repositories were systematically searched to retrieve articles that investigated associations between polymorphisms and COVID-19. For polymorphisms analyzed in 3 or more studies, pooled OR with 95% CI were calculated using random or fixed effect models in the Stata Software. Sixty-four eligible articles were included in this review. In total, 8 polymorphisms in 7 candidate genes and 74 alleles of the HLA loci were analyzed in 3 or more studies. The HLA-A*30 and CCR5 rs333Del alleles were associated with protection against COVID-19 infection, while the APOE rs429358C allele was associated with risk for this disease. Regarding COVID-19 severity, the HLA-A*33, ACE1 Ins, and TMPRSS2 rs12329760T alleles were associated with protection against severe forms, while the HLA-B*38, HLA-C*6, and ApoE rs429358C alleles were associated with risk for severe forms of COVID-19. In conclusion, polymorphisms in the ApoE, ACE1, TMPRSS2, CCR5, and HLA loci appear to be involved in the susceptibility to and/or severity of COVID-19.

COVID-19 morbidity in Afghanistan: a nationwide, population-based seroepidemiological study

ObjectiveThe primary objectives were to determine the magnitude of COVID-19 infections in the general population and age-specific cumulative incidence, as determined by seropositivity and clinical symptoms of COVID-19, and to...

Sequelae of COVID-19 among previously hospitalized patients up to 1year after discharge: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ObjectiveAlthough complications and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 have been elucidated, the prevalence of long-term sequelae of COVID-19 is less clear in previously hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This review and meta-analysis present the occurrence of different symptoms up to 1 year of follow-up for previously hospitalized patients.MethodsWe performed a systematic review from PubMed and Web of Science using keywords such as “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “sequelae”, “long-term effect” and included studies with at least 3-month of follow-up. Meta-analyses using random-effects models were performed to estimate the pooled prevalence for different sequelae. Subgroup analyses were conducted by different follow-up time, regions, age and ICU admission.Results72 articles were included in the meta-analyses after screening 11,620 articles, identifying a total of 167 sequelae related to COVID-19 from 88,769 patients. Commonly reported sequelae included fatigue (27.5%, 95% CI 22.4–33.3%, range 1.5–84.9%), somnipathy (20.1%, 95% CI 14.7–26.9%, range 1.2–64.8%), anxiety (18.0%, 95% CI 13.8–23.1%, range 0.6–47.8%), dyspnea (15.5%, 95% CI 11.3–20.9%, range 0.8–58.4%), PTSD (14.6%, 95% CI 11.3–18.7%, range 1.2–32.0%), hypomnesia (13.4%, 95% CI 8.4–20.7%, range 0.6–53.8%), arthralgia (12.9%, 95% CI 8.4–19.2%, range 0.0–47.8%), depression (12.7%, 95% CI 9.3–17.2%, range 0.6–37.5%), alopecia (11.2%, 95% CI 6.9–17.6%, range 0.0–47.0%) over 3–13.2 months of follow-up. The prevalence of most symptoms reduced after > 9 months of follow-up, but fatigue and somnipathy persisted in 26.2% and 15.1%, respectively, of the patients over a year. COVID-19 patients from Asia reported a lower prevalence than those from other regions.ConclusionsThis review identified a wide spectrum of COVID-19 sequelae in previously hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with some symptoms persisting up to 1 year. Management and rehabilitation strategies targeting these symptoms may improve quality of life of recovered patients.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s15010-022-01862-3.

MO1016: Features of the Formation of Post-Infectious and Post-Vaccinal Humoral Immune Response to SARS-COV-2 in Kidney Recipients

BACKGROUNDThis paper presents the results of studying the characteristics of the antibody response in kidney recipients who are at high risk of severe COVID-19.METHODThe study of features of the formation of post-infectious anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG was carried out in the group of kidney recipients (n = 171) with PCR confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Studies of the characteristics of post-vaccination immunity were carried out in a group of vaccinated recipients (n = 49) with Sputnik V (Russia) or Vero Cell (China).ELISA was used to detect IgG to S and N proteins of the SARS-CoV-2.Comparative studies used a simple randomized selection of immunocompetent COVID-19 patients (n = 163).Statistical data processing was carried out using the χ2 and Wald's methods.RESULTSIt was found that 30 days after the onset of clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in kidney recipients, IgG to S and/or N proteins of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 89.5% (83.9%–93.3%) of them. The detection rate of IgG to the S protein was higher than that to the N protein [87.7% (81.9%–91.9%) and 62.0% (54.5%–68.9%), respectively). At the same time, the seroprevalence to the pathogen varied by age: in the 18–34-year-old group it was 77.7% (59.9%–88.9%), in the 50–64-year-old group it was 96.7% (88.2%–99.8%) and in the group >64 years old it was 80.0% (66.8%–89.0%). This trend of antibody production in older recipients correlated with the highest frequency of registration in them of moderate and severe forms [66.7% (56.4%–75.6%)]. Differences due to the severity of the disease were noted both in the frequency of detectable antibodies [80.3% (69.5%–88.0%) in recipients with a mild form of COVID-19 and 96.0% in recipients with a severe form of infection (P < .001)] and in the intensity of the formed anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity. Thus, high values of PC (positivity coefficient) (>12) to S protein were recorded in 52.7% (39.8%–65.3%) and 63.2% (53.1%–72.2%) patients with mild and severe forms of COVID-19, respectively, which indicated a direct dependence of the production of antiviral antibodies on the severity of the infection. It was found that in 62.6% (55.1%–69.5%) of recovered recipients anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG persisted for a period of 3 months from the onset of infection. In a significant proportion of recipients [42.8% (35.5%–50.2%)], antibodies were detected for up to 15 months. In general, the post-infectious antibody response in kidney recipients and immunocompetent patients had similar patterns of development. Despite the general mechanism of antibody production, in immunocompetent patients, the frequency of detection of antiviral antibodies (to N protein: 82.9% and to S protein: 91.2%), tension indicators (high values of PC to N protein: 51.0% and to S protein: 75.5%) and the duration of retention (in 50.3% at 15 months of monitoring) were slightly higher than the same parameters in recipients with COVID-19.In kidney recipients after immunization with Sputnik V and Vero Cell (n = 34), a rather low detection rate of antiviral IgG [52.9% (36.7%–68.6%) compared with a similar parameter (P < .001) in vaccinated immunocompetent individuals [96.8% (94.8%–98.1%)] was found. The seroprevalence in the group of recipients with hybrid immunity (after illness and vaccination, n = 15) was 86.7% (60.9%–97.5%). In a comparative analysis of the intensity of post-vaccination immunity, high values of PC to S protein (>12) were recorded in 44.0% (26.7%–62.9%) of recipients vaccinated with Sputnik V and 50.0% (31.4%–68.6%) of recipients vaccinated with Vero Cell. The inverse relationship was observed in immunocompetent individuals: 64.7% (58.1%–70.7%) for Sputnik V and 44.2% (36.8%–51.8%] for Vero Cell.CONCLUSIONThe patterns of antibody response to the causative agent in recipients with COVID-19 are comparable to those in immunocompetent patients, while for vaccinated recipients, a low frequency of detection of antiviral antibodies was shown, which indicates the need to continue research on the humoral immunity in people with vulnerable immunity in order to select the best tactics for COVID-19 immunization.

The economic impact of false positivity of COVID-19 PCR testing in the Czech Republic

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, causing significant losses to the world's population's health, lives, and economic levels. The process of testing using RT-PCR tests also had other serious economic impacts. The testing process also sometimes results in erroneous results. One of them is false positivity. This article uses the Bayesian approach which estimates the economic impacts of false-positive results. The Bayesian approach takes into account a prior probability distribution depending on the prevalence of the disease in the population. False-positive results can be minimized by retesting positive persons who have no clinical symptoms of COVID-19. The costs of retesting these people are significantly lower than those associated with isolating them and quarantining their contacts.

Clinical Symptoms of COVID-19 and Their Association with Disease Outcome.

Background:COVID-19 pandemic placed immense pressure on health systems. The current study aimed to evaluate the symptoms of COVID-19 in Isfahan province and their association with disease outcome.Materials and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, which was conducted on patients with a definite diagnosis of COVID-19, as a part of the investigations performed by the Deputy for Public Health of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, the frequency of underlying diseases, and general, respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, renal, cardiac, dermal, hearing symptoms are assessed using a checklist. The participants were followed up 1 month after definitive diagnosis, and the outcome of the disease (recovery or death) was recorded.Results:Of 300 patients, 143 (47.4%) were male and 157 (52.6%) were female. The mean age of patients was 43 ± 17.84 years. Muscle pain and fatigue were the most common early symptoms (63% and 60.3%, respectively). Age, sex, level of education, and occupation of patients and general, respiratory, and gastrointestinal symptoms and underlying diseases of respiratory disease showed a statistically significant association with the disease outcome (P < 0.05).Conclusion:General, respiratory, and gastrointestinal symptoms were associated with an increased risk of death due to COVID-19. General, visual, and hearing symptoms, and diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory disease had a statistically significant association with the hospitalization of patients.