Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Assessment During Covid-19: Quality Assurance Of An Online Open Book Formative Examination For Undergraduate Medical Students, Javeria Rehman, Rahila Ali Mazhar, Azam Afzal, Sara Shakil, Amber Shahmim Sultan, Romana Idress, Syeda Sadia Fatima

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: The spread of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 compelled all the educational activities, including medical education to be shifted from face-to-face interaction to a virtual platform. This shift provided opportunities for exploring online assessment modalities. One such assessment method is an online open book exam which is a unique concept in medical education of Pakistan. Limited information is available in literature regarding open book exam for the basic science subjects. Hence, the objective of the study was to determine the quality of the open book exam administered as a pilot project to the first-year medical students.
Methods: It was …

Simultaneous Onset Of Haematological Malignancy And Covid: An Epicovideha Survey, Chiara Cattaneo, Jon Salmanton-García, Francesco Marchesi, Shaimaa El-Ashwah, Federico Itri, Barbora Weinbergerová, Maria Gomes Da Silva, Michelina Dargenio, Julio Dávila-Valls, Natasha Ali

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: The outcome of patients with simultaneous diagnosis of haematological malignancies (HM) and COVID-19 is unknown and there are no specific treatment guidelines.
Methods: We describe the clinical features and outcome of a cohort of 450 patients with simultaneous diagnosis of HM and COVID-19 registered in the EPICOVIDEHA registry between March 2020 to February 2022.
Results: Acute leukaemia and lymphoma were the most frequent HM (35.8% and 35.1%, respectively). Overall, 343 (76.2%) patients received treatment for HM, which was delayed for longer than one month since diagnosis in 57 (16.6%). An overall response rate was observed in 140 (40.8%) patients …

Respiratory Virus Surveillance Among Children With Acute Respiratory Illnesses - New Vaccine Surveillance Network, United States, 2016-2021., Ariana Perez, Joana Y. Lively, Aaron Curns, Geoffrey A. Weinberg, Natasha B. Halasa, Mary Allen Staat, Peter G. Szilagyi, Laura S. Stewart, Monica M. Mcneal, Benjamin Clopper, Yingtao Zhou, Brett L. Whitaker, Elizabeth Lemasters, Elizabeth Harker, Janet A. Englund, Eileen J. Klein, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Christopher J. Harrison, Julie A. Boom, Leila C. Sahni, Marian G. Michaels, John V. Williams, Gayle E. Langley, Susan I. Gerber, Angela Campbell, Aron J. Hall, Brian Rha, Meredith Mcmorrow, New Vaccine Surveillance Network Collaborators

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) is a prospective, active, population-based surveillance platform that enrolls children with acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) at seven pediatric medical centers. ARIs are caused by respiratory viruses including influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (HMPV), human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs), and most recently SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), which result in morbidity among infants and young children (1-6). NVSN estimates the incidence of pathogen-specific pediatric ARIs and collects clinical data (e.g., underlying medical conditions and vaccination status) to assess risk factors for severe disease and calculate influenza and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. Current NVSN …

Acute Pericarditis And Acute Pleuritis/Empyema Following Submandibular Infection In A Covid-19-Postive Patient: An Autopsy Revealing The Danger Space Of The Neck, Jessica Anderson, Seyedalireza Fatemi, Joseph Fullmer, Ping Zhang

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Acute pericarditis and empyema are life-threatening complications of severe odontogenic infections; reports of these findings from an autopsy perspective are rare. We report an autopsy case demonstrating infection from the mandibular molars to the pericardium and pleura in a patient following COVID-19 infection. A 53-year-old woman with history of COVID-19 (and on repeat testing at admission) presented with submandibular abscess that grew Streptococcus anginosus. Despite incision and drainage of the neck abscess and medical treatment, her condition deteriorated, with sudden death a week after admission. An autopsy with histologic analysis was performed. Externally, a surgical incision containing purulent drainage …

Varieties Of Renal Diseases Identified In Renal Biopsies Of Patients Infected By Covid-19, Jessica Anderson, Wei Li, Hassan D. Kanaan, Ping Zhang

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Context: COVID-19 has been shown to cause renal pathology by multiple proposed mechanisms. However, studies evaluating renal biopsies for the effects of COVID-19 remain limited. We report our experience in our health system in a variety of renal pathologic diagnoses caused by COVID-19 infection.

Design: We performed detailed analysis of 5 renal biopsies related to COVID-19 infection, of 812 renal biopsies over the previous 22 months (0.6% of all cases).

Results: The first 3 patients were 2 African American men, 34 and 45 years old, and 1 48-year-old white male transplant recipient who developed acute kidney injury and nephrotic range …

Informing Healthcare Operations With Integrated Pathology, Clinical, And Epidemiology Data: Lessons From A Single Institution In Kenya During Covid-19 Waves, Allan Njau, Jemimah Kimeu, Jaimini Gohil, David Nganga

Pathology, East Africa

Pathology, clinical care teams, and public health experts often operate in silos. We hypothesized that large data sets from laboratories when integrated with other healthcare data can provide evidence that can be used to optimize planning for healthcare needs, often driven by health-seeking or delivery behavior. From the hospital information system, we extracted raw data from tests performed from 2019 to 2021, prescription drug usage, and admission patterns from pharmacy and nursing departments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya (March 2020 to December 2021). Proportions and rates were calculated. Regression models were created, and a t-test for differences between …

Covid-19 And Blood Clots: A Report Of Massive Pulmonary Embolism In Covid-19 Patient Supported On Veno-Venous Ecmo And The Utility Of Thrombolysis, Bindu Akkanti, Joseph Zwischenberger, Mark T Warner, Kha Dinh, Rahat Hussain, Farah Kazzaz, Pascal Kingah, Lisa M Janowiak, Biswajit Kar, Igor D Gregoric

Journal Articles

COVID-19 morbidity and mortality are not equivalent to other etiologies of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as fulminant activation of coagulation can occur, thereby resulting in widespread microvascular thrombosis and consumption of coagulation factors. A 53-year-old female presented to an emergency center on two occasions with progressive gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia and admitted to a satellite intensive care unit with hypoxemic respiratory failure. She was intubated and mechanically ventilated, but her ARDS progressed over the next 48 hours. The patient was emergently cannulated for veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-V ECMO) and transferred to our …

A Single Dose Of The Deactivated Rabies-Virus Vectored Covid-19 Vaccine, Coravax, Is Highly Efficacious And Alleviates Lung Inflammation In The Hamster Model, Drishya Kurup, Christoph Wirblich, Leila Zabihi Diba, Rachael Lambert, Megan Watson, Noor Shaikh, Holly Ramage, Charalambos Solomides, Matthias J Schnell

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Without sufficient herd immunity through either vaccination or natural infection, the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is unlikely to be controlled. Waning immunity with the currently approved vaccines suggests the need to evaluate vaccines causing the induction of long-term responses. Here, we report the immunogenicity and efficacy of our adjuvanted single-dose Rabies-vectored SARS-CoV-2 S1 vaccine, CORAVAX, in hamsters. CORAVAX induces high SARS-CoV-2 S1-specific and virus-neutralizing antibodies (VNAs) that prevent weight loss, viral loads, disease, lung inflammation, and the cytokine storm in hamsters. We also observed high Rabies VNA titers. In summary, CORAVAX is a promising dual-antigen vaccine candidate for clinical evaluation …

Insect Cell Expression And Purification Of Recombinant Sars-Cov-2 Spike Proteins That Demonstrate Ace2 Binding, Lucas R. Struble, Audrey L. Smith, William E. Lutz, Gabrielle Grubbs, Satish Sagar, Kenneth W. Bayles, Prakash Radhakrishnan, Surender Khurana, Dalia El-Gamal, Gloria E. O. Borgstahl

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection has led to socio-economic shutdowns and the loss of over 5 million lives worldwide. There is a need for the identification of therapeutic targets to treat COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 spike is a target of interest for the development of therapeutic targets. We developed a robust SARS-CoV-2 S spike expression and purification protocol from insect cells and studied four recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein constructs based on the original SARS-CoV-2 sequence using a baculovirus expression system: a spike protein receptor-binding domain that includes the SD1 domain (RBD) coupled to a fluorescent tag (S-RBD-eGFP), spike ectodomain coupled …

Type I Ifn Signaling Protects Mice From Lethal Sars-Cov-2 Neuroinvasion., Md Bashir Uddin, Yuejin Liang, Shengjun Shao, Sunil Palani, Michael Mckelvey, Scott C. Weaver, Keer Sun

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

Multiple organ damage is common in patients with severe COVID-19, even though the underlying pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. Acute viral infection typically activates type I IFN (IFN-I) signaling. The antiviral role of IFN-I is well characterized in vitro. However, our understanding of how IFN-I regulates host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo is incomplete. Using a human ACE2-transgenic mouse model, we show in the present study that IFN-I receptor signaling is essential for protection against the acute lethality of SARS-CoV-2 in mice. Interestingly, although IFN-I signaling limits viral replication in the lung, the primary infection site, it is dispensable …

D-Dimer Testing In Covid-19: From Basics To Clinical Application, Bushra Moiz

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.