COVID-19 Commons^™

Is Covid-19-Induced Platelet Activation A Cause Of Concern For Patients With Cancer?, Lenard M Lichtenberger, K Vinod Vijayan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patients with cancer are more susceptible to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 and develop severe outcomes including ICU admittance, mechanical ventilator support, and a high rate of mortality. Like mid-to late-stage cancer, SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with platelet hyperactivity, systemic inflammation, thrombotic complications, and coagulopathy. Platelets also promote cancer cell growth, survival in circulation, and angiogenesis at sites of metastases. In this article, we will discuss the potential for platelets in the development of systemic inflammation and thrombosis in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with cancer, with the concern that the platelet-induced pathogenic events are likely magnified in cancer patients with COVID-19.

Prevalence Of Functional Limitation In Covid-19 Recovered Patients Using The Post Covid-19 Functional Status Scale, Pankaj Pant, Aishana Joshi, Babin Basnet, Bibek Man Shrestha, Navindra Raj Bista, Niraj Bam, Santa Kumar Das

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 is an emerging global health pandemic causing tremendous morbidity and mortality worldwide. Chronic symptoms progressing to poor functional status have been reported in a substantial proportion of COVID-19 patients worldwide. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of functional limitation in COVID-19 recovered patients using the post-COVID-19 functional status scale.

METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. COVID-19 recovered patients with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction negative status were included and assessed using the post-COVID-19 functional status scale. Data entry and analysis was done in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0. Descriptive …

Examining Social Vulnerability And The Association With Covid-19 Incidence In Harris County, Texas, Guillermo A Tortolero, Marcia De Oliveira Otto, Ryan Ramphul, Jose-Miguel Yamal, Alison Rector, Michael Brown, Melissa F Peskin, Dania Mofleh, Eric Boerwinkle

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Studies have investigated the association between social vulnerability and SARS-CoV-2 incidence. However, few studies have examined small geographic units such as census tracts, examined geographic regions with large numbers of Hispanic and Black populations, controlled for testing rates, and incorporated stay-at-home measures into their analyses. Understanding the relationship between social vulnerability and SARS-CoV-2 incidence is critical to understanding the interplay between social determinants and implementing risk mitigation guidelines to curtail the spread of infectious diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between CDC's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and SARS-CoV-2 incidence while controlling for testing rates and …

Awareness And Preparedness Of Healthcare Workers Against The First Wave Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey Across 57 Countries, Nguyen Tien Huy, R Matthew Chico, Vuong Thanh Huan, Hosam Waleed Shaikhkhalil, Vuong Ngoc Thao Uyen, Ahmad Taysir Atieh Qarawi, Shamael Thabit Mohammed Alhady, Nguyen Lam Vuong, Le Van Truong, Mai Ngoc Luu, Shyam Prakash Dumre, Atsuko Imoto, Peter N Lee, Dao Ngoc Hien Tam, Sze Jia Ng, Mohammad Rashidul Hashan, Mitsuaki Matsui, Nguyen Tran Minh Duc, Sedighe Karimzadeh, Nut Koonrungsesomboon, Chris Smith, Sharon Cox, Kazuhiko Moji, Kenji Hirayama, Le Khac Linh, Kirellos Said Abbas, Tran Nu Thuy Dung, Tareq Mohammed Ali Al-Ahdal, Emmanuel Oluwadare Balogun, Nguyen The Duy, Mennatullah Mohamed Eltaras, Trang Huynh, Nguyen Thi Linh Hue, Bui Diem Khue, Abdelrahman Gad, Gehad Mohamed Tawfik, Kazumi Kubota, Hoang-Minh Nguyen, Dmytro Pavlenko, Vu Thi Thu Trang, Le Thuong Vu, Tran Hai Yen, Nguyen Thi Yen-Xuan, Luong Thi Trang, Vinh Dong, Akash Sharma, Vu Quoc Dat, Mohammed Soliman, Jeza Abdul Aziz, Jaffer Shah, Pham Dinh Long Hung, Yap Siang Jee, Dang Thuy Ha Phuong, Tran Thuy Huong Quynh, Hoang Thi Nam Giang, Vy Thi Nhat Huynh, Nguyen Anh Thi, Nacir Dhouibi, Truc Phan, Vincent Duru, Nguyen Hai Nam, Sherief Ghozy, Tmgh-Global Covid-19 Collaborative

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been concerns related to the preparedness of healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to describe the level of awareness and preparedness of hospital HCWs at the time of the first wave.

METHODS: This multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional survey was conducted among hospital HCWs from February to May 2020. We used a hierarchical logistic regression multivariate analysis to adjust the influence of variables based on awareness and preparedness. We then used association rule mining to identify relationships between HCW confidence in handling suspected COVID-19 patients and prior COVID-19 case-management training.

RESULTS: We surveyed 24,653 …

Characteristics And Outcomes Of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest In Covid-19 A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Lukasz Szarpak, Magdalena Borkowska, Frank W Peacock, Zubaid Rafique, Aleksandra Gasecka, Jacek Smereka, Katarzyna Pytkowska, Marta Jachowicz, Lukasz Iskrzycki, Natasza Gilis-Malinowska, Milosz J Jaguszewski

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The purpose herein, was to perform a systematic review of interventional outcome studies in patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period.

METHODS: A meta-analysis was performed of publications meeting the following PICOS criteria: (1) participants, patients > 18 years of age with cardiac arrest due to any causes; (2) intervention, cardiac arrest in COVID-19 period; (3) comparison, cardiac arrest in pre-COVID-19 period; (4) outcomes, detailed information for survival; (5) study design, randomized controlled trials, quasi-randomized or observational studies comparing cardiac arrest in COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 period for their effects in patients with …

Thyroid Storm In A Patient With Covid-19, Angela N Rao, Ruaa Y Al-Ward, Ruchi Gaba

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: A thyroid storm is a severe exacerbation of thyrotoxicosis that can cause significant morbidity and mortality. The emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that originated in Wuhan, China, has become a worldwide pandemic. We present the first documented case of thyroid storm (as defined by the Burch-Wartofsky criteria) in a patient with COVID-19.

METHODS: Laboratory and diagnostic studies, including thyroid function tests, thyroid antibody testing, SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal polymerase chain reaction testing, and thyroid ultrasound were performed.

RESULTS: A 25-year-old woman presented to the hospital with dry cough, dyspnea, palpitations, weight loss, diarrhea, and anxiety. Physical examination revealed exophthalmos with …

Safety And Effectiveness Of Hydroxychloroquine And Azithromycin Combination Therapy For Treatment Of Hospitalized Patients With Covid-19: A Propensity-Matched Study, Henry D Huang, Hani Jneid, Mariam Aziz, Venkatesh Ravi, Parikshit S Sharma, Timothy Larsen, Neal Chatterjee, Basil Saour, Zaid Aziz, Hemal Nayak, Richard G Trohman, Kousik Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: We sought to determine the effectiveness and safety of hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin (HCQ-AZM) therapy in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of 613 patients hospitalized (integrated health system involving three hospitals) for RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection between March 1, 2020 and April 25, 2020. Intervention was treatment with HCQ-AZM in hospitalized patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Outcomes of interest were in-hospital all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, pulseless electrical activity (PEA) arrest, non-lethal arrhythmias, and length of hospital stay. Secondary measures included in-hospital corrected QT (QTc) interval parameters and serum biomarkers levels.

RESULTS: Propensity-matched …

Postacute Covid-19: An Overview And Approach To Classification, Eva M Amenta, Amy Spallone, Maria C Rodriguez-Barradas, Hana M El Sahly, Robert L Atmar, Prathit A Kulkarni

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has progressed, a large volume of literature has developed delineating the clinical manifestations of acute infection. Recent reports have also started to describe persistent symptoms extending beyond the period of initial illness or hospitalization. Anecdotes of different signs and symptoms occurring after acute infection have also arisen in the lay press. Here we describe the current existing medical literature on the emerging concept of postacute COVID-19 and suggest an approach to classifying different manifestations of the syndrome. We also review long-term clinical manifestations observed in patients who recovered from infection due to other …

Donor And Transplant Candidate Selection For Solid Organ Transplantation During The Covid-19 Pandemic, N Thao N Galvan, Nicolas F Moreno, Jay E Garza, Susan Bourgeois, Marion Hemmersbach-Miller, Bhamidipati Murthy, Katherine Timmins, Christine A O'Mahony, James Anton, Andrew Civitello, Puneet Garcha, Gabe Loor, Kenneth Liao, Alexis Shaffi, John Vierling, Rise Stribling, Abbas Rana, John A Goss

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus responsible for a worldwide pandemic has forced drastic changes in medical practice in an alarmingly short period of time. Caregivers must modify their strategies as well as optimize the utilization of resources to ensure public and patient safety. For organ transplantation, in particular, the loss of lifesaving organs for transplantation could lead to increased waitlist mortality. The priority is to select uninfected donors to transplant uninfected recipients while maintaining safety for health care systems in the backdrop of a virulent pandemic. We do not yet have a standard approach to evaluating …

Aaim Recommendations For The 2020-2021 Internal Medicine Residency Application Cycle In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Katherine C Chretien, Jaya M Raj, Reeni A Abraham, Paul Aronowitz, Donna J Astiz, Shobhina G Chheda, Ernie L Esquivel, Maria M Garcia, Nadia Ismail, Susan Lane, Suzanne E Mclaughlin, Anne Pereira, Amy W Shaheen, Abby L Spencer, Kimberly M Tartaglia, Lisa L Willett

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

This statement was released in June 2020 by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine to provide guidance for the 2020-2021 residency application cycle in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many of the recommendations are specific to this cycle, others, such as the Department Summary Letter of Evaluation, are meant to be an enduring change to the internal medicine residency application process. AAIM realizes that some schools may not yet have the tools or resources to implement the template fully this cycle and look toward collaboration within the internal medicine education community to facilitate adoption in the cycles to come.

Comparison Of Sars-Cov-2 Detection From Nasopharyngeal Swab Samples By The Roche Cobas 6800 Sars-Cov-2 Test And A Laboratory-Developed Real-Time Rt-Pcr Test, Elisabet Pujadas, Nnaemeka Ibeh, Matthew M Hernandez, Aneta Waluszko, Tatyana Sidorenko, Vanessa Flores, Biana Shiffrin, Numthip Chiu, Alicia Young-Francois, Michael D Nowak, Alberto E Paniz-Mondolfi, Emilia M Sordillo, Carlos Cordon-Cardo, Jane Houldsworth, Melissa R Gitman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The urgent need to implement and rapidly expand testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has led to the development of multiple assays. How these tests perform relative to one another is poorly understood. We evaluated the concordance between the Roche Diagnostics cobas 6800 SARS-CoV-2 test and a laboratory-developed test (LDT) real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction based on a modified Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol, for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in samples submitted to the Clinical Laboratories of the Mount Sinai Health System. A total of 1006 nasopharyngeal swabs in universal transport medium from persons under …

Rna-Gps Predicts Sars-Cov-2 Rna Residency To Host Mitochondria And Nucleolus, Kevin E Wu, Furqan M Fazal, Kevin R Parker, James Zou, Howard Y Chang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

SARS-CoV-2 genomic and subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) transcripts hijack the host cell's machinery. Subcellular localization of its viral RNA could, thus, play important roles in viral replication and host antiviral immune response. We perform computational modeling of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA subcellular residency across eight subcellular neighborhoods. We compare hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 genomes with the human transcriptome and other coronaviruses. We predict the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome and sgRNAs to be enriched toward the host mitochondrial matrix and nucleolus, and that the 5' and 3' viral untranslated regions contain the strongest, most distinct localization signals. We interpret the mitochondrial residency signal as an …

Cardiac Surgery During The Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Perioperative Considerations And Triage Recommendations, Vivek Patel, Ernesto Jimenez, Lorraine Cornwell, Trung Tran, David Paniagua, Ali E Denktas, Andrew Chou, Samuel J Hankins, Biykem Bozkurt, Todd K Rosengart, Hani Jneid

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, represents the third human affliction attributed to the highly pathogenic coronavirus in the current century. Because of its highly contagious nature and unprecedented global spread, its aggressive clinical presentation, and the lack of effective treatment, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection is causing the loss of thousands of lives and imparting unparalleled strain on healthcare systems around the world. In the current report, we discuss perioperative considerations for patients undergoing cardiac surgery and provide clinicians with recommendations to effectively triage and plan these procedures during the coronavirus disease …

Ua35/3 Memoranda, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

2020 memoranda issued by the WKU Provost to faculty & staff via email.

• Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning January Workshops
• Fall to Fall Retention of All FFY as of Census by Selected Categories
• Updates fromt the Provost
• COVID-19
• COVID-19 or Coronavirus Update
• COVID-19 Update from the Provost's Office
• Announcing the 2020 College Faculty Award Winners
• WKU Announces New Associate Provost for Research & Graduate Education
• Budget Communication
• Summer School Updates from the Provost
• Amendment to PDF Policy
• FY2020-21 Budget Executive Committee Recommendations
• Provost's Message

When Pictures Waste A Thousand Words: Analysis Of The 2009 H1n1 Pandemic On Television News, Westerly Luth, Cindy Jardine, Tania M. Bubela

Office of the Provost

Objectives: Effective communication by public health agencies during a pandemic promotes the adoption of recommended health behaviours. However, more information is not always the solution. Rather, attention must be paid to how information is communicated. Our study examines the television news, which combines video and audio content. We analyse (1) the content of television news about the H1N1 pandemic and vaccination campaign in Alberta, Canada; (2) the extent to which television news content conveyed key public health agency messages; (3) the extent of discrepancies in audio versus visual content.
Methods: We searched for "swine flu" and "H1N1" in local English …