COVID-19 Commons^™

Influenza Viral Infection Is A Risk Factor For Severe Illness In Covid-19 Patients: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study, Jeong-Hwan Hwang, Yeon Seok You, Sang Woo Yeom, Min Gyu Lee, Jong-Hwan Lee, Min Gul Kim, Jong Seung Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In order to prepare for the twindemic of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infection, we investigated the association between influenza infection and subsequent severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. A population-based nationwide cohort study was performed using data from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) in the Republic of Korea. This study included 274,126 individuals who underwent SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing between 20 January 2020 and 1 October 2020. Among these patients, 28,338 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and 4,003 of these individuals had a history of influenza. The control group was selected through 1:1 propensity score matching. In the group of 4,003 COVID-19-positive individuals with …

Empagliflozin In Patients Admitted To Hospital With Covid-19 (Recovery): A Randomised, Controlled, Open-Label, Platform Trial, Recovery Collaborative Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Empagliflozin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its anti-inflammatory, metabolic, and haemodynamic effects. The RECOVERY trial aimed to assess its safety and efficacy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

METHODS: In the randomised, controlled, open-label RECOVERY trial, several possible treatments are compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. In this analysis, we assess eligible and consenting adults who were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus oral empagliflozin 10 mg once daily for 28 days or until discharge …

An Ace2 Decamer Viral Trap As A Durable Intervention Solution For Current And Future Sars-Cov, Hailong Guo, Bomsoo Cho, Paul R Hinton, Sijia He, Yongjun Yu, Ashwin Kumar Ramesh, Jwala Priyadarsini Sivaccumar, Zhiqiang Ku, Kristen Campo, Sarah Holland, Sameer Sachdeva, Christopher Mensch, Mohamed Dawod, Annalis Whitaker, Philip Eisenhauer, Allison Falcone, Rebekah Honce, Jason W Botten, Stephen F Carroll, Bruce A Keyt, Andrew W Womack, William R Strohl, Kai Xu, Ningyan Zhang, Zhiqiang An, Sha Ha, John W Shiver, Tong-Ming Fu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The capacity of SARS-CoV-2 to evolve poses challenges to conventional prevention and treatment options such as vaccination and monoclonal antibodies, as they rely on viral receptor binding domain (RBD) sequences from previous strains. Additionally, animal CoVs, especially those of the SARS family, are now appreciated as a constant pandemic threat. We present here a new antiviral approach featuring inhalation delivery of a recombinant viral trap composed of ten copies of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) fused to the IgM Fc. This ACE2 decamer viral trap is designed to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 entry function, regardless of viral RBD sequence variations as shown by …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Managing Ophthalmic Diseases: An International, Descriptive Study, Ethan Waisberg, Joshua Ong, Nasif Zaman, Sharif Amit Kamran, Alireza Tavakkoli, Andrew G Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Anecdotally, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more severe cases of eye disease, decreased medication compliance/availability, and decreased treatment volume due to the lockdown.

Aims: We aim to quantify and bring together a variety of international perspectives from ophthalmologists of different subspecialties to characterize the global impact of COVID-19 on managing various ophthalmic disease.

Methods: An online survey of 10 questions was conducted among ophthalmologists using a specialized survey program.

Results: Fifty-two ophthalmologists were successfully contacted. Survey respondents include ophthalmologists from USA, Canada, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand. Based on the results of our survey, 1 year after the …

Varlock: Sequencing-Independent, Rapid Detection Of Sars-Cov-2 Variants Of Concern For Point-Of-Care Testing, Qpcr Pipelines And National Wastewater Surveillance, Xinsheng Nan, Patrick Hardinge, Sven Hoehn, Shrinivas Nivrutti Dighe, John Ukeri, Darius F Pease, Joshua Griffin, Jessica I Warrington, Zack Saud, Emma Hottinger, Gordon Webster, Davey Jones, Peter Kille, Andrew Weightman, Richard Stanton, Oliver K Castell, James A H Murray, Tomasz P Jurkowski

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for rapid molecular diagnostics. Vaccination programs can provide protection and facilitate the opening of society, but newly emergent and existing viral variants capable of evading the immune system endanger their efficacy. Effective surveillance for Variants of Concern (VOC) is therefore important. Rapid and specific molecular diagnostics can provide speed and coverage advantages compared to genomic sequencing alone, benefitting the public health response and facilitating VOC containment. Here we expand the recently developed SARS-CoV-2 CRISPR-Cas detection technology (SHERLOCK) to provide rapid and sensitive discrimination of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs that can be used at point of care, …

Evaluation Of The Us Covid-19 Scenario Modeling Hub For Informing Pandemic Response Under Uncertainty, Emily Howerton, Lucie Contamin, Luke C Mullany, Michelle Qin, Nicholas G Reich, Samantha Bents, Rebecca K Borchering, Sung-Mok Jung, Sara L Loo, Claire P Smith, John Levander, Jessica Kerr, J Espino, Willem G Van Panhuis, Harry Hochheiser, Marta Galanti, Teresa Yamana, Sen Pei, Jeffrey Shaman, Kaitlin Rainwater-Lovett, Matt Kinsey, Kate Tallaksen, Shelby Wilson, Lauren Shin, Joseph C Lemaitre, Joshua Kaminsky, Juan Dent Hulse, Elizabeth C Lee, Clifton D Mckee, Alison Hill, Dean Karlen, Matteo Chinazzi, Jessica T Davis, Kunpeng Mu, Xinyue Xiong, Ana Pastore Y Piontti, Alessandro Vespignani, Erik T Rosenstrom, Julie S Ivy, Maria E Mayorga, Julie L Swann, Guido España, Sean Cavany, Sean Moore, Alex Perkins, Thomas Hladish, Alexander Pillai, Kok Ben Toh, Ira Longini, Shi Chen, Rajib Paul, Daniel Janies, Jean-Claude Thill, Anass Bouchnita, Kaiming Bi, Michael Lachmann, Spencer J Fox, Lauren Ancel Meyers, Ajitesh Srivastava, Przemyslaw Porebski, Srini Venkatramanan, Aniruddha Adiga, Bryan Lewis, Brian Klahn, Joseph Outten, Benjamin Hurt, Jiangzhuo Chen, Henning Mortveit, Amanda Wilson, Madhav Marathe, Stefan Hoops, Parantapa Bhattacharya, Dustin Machi, Betsy L Cadwell, Jessica M Healy, Rachel B Slayton, Michael A Johansson, Matthew Biggerstaff, Shaun Truelove, Michael C Runge, Katriona Shea, Cécile Viboud, Justin Lessler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Our ability to forecast epidemics far into the future is constrained by the many complexities of disease systems. Realistic longer-term projections may, however, be possible under well-defined scenarios that specify the future state of critical epidemic drivers. Since December 2020, the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) has convened multiple modeling teams to make months ahead projections of SARS-CoV-2 burden, totaling nearly 1.8 million national and state-level projections. Here, we find SMH performance varied widely as a function of both scenario validity and model calibration. We show scenarios remained close to reality for 22 weeks on average before the arrival …

A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study To Characterize Patients Hospitalized With Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Adults And Coronavirus Disease 2019 In The United States, 2020-2021, Michael Melgar, Joseph Y Abrams, Shana Godfred-Cato, Ami B Shah, Amit Garg, Andrew Strunk, Mangala Narasimhan, Jonathan Koptyev, Alexandra Norden, David Musheyev, Fahmida Rashid, Rachel Tannenbaum, Rosa M Estrada-Y-Martin, Bela Patel, Siddharth Karanth, Chad J Achenbach, Gavin T Hall, Sara M Hockney, Matthew Caputo, Lilian M Abbo, Laura Beauchamps, Stephen Morris, Renzo O Cifuentes, Annabelle De St Maurice, Douglas S Bell, Kavitha K Prabaker, Fernando J Sanz Vidorreta, Evan Bryant, David K Cohen, Rohith Mohan, Christopher P Libby, Spencer Soohoo, Tristel J Domingo, Angela P Campbell, Ermias D Belay

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) requires distinguishing it from acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and may affect clinical management.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we applied the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition to identify adults hospitalized with MIS-A at 6 academic medical centers from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2021. Patients MIS-A were matched by age group, sex, site, and admission date at a 1:2 ratio to patients hospitalized with acute symptomatic COVID-19. Conditional logistic regression was used to compare demographic characteristics, …

Rapid, High Throughput, Automated Detection Of Sars-Cov-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Against Wuhan-Wt, Delta And Omicron Ba1, Ba2 Spike Trimers, Narayanaiah Cheedarla, Hans P Verkerke, Sindhu Potlapalli, Kaleb Benjamin Mclendon, Anamika Patel, Filipp Frank, William Henry O'Sick, Suneethamma Cheedarla, Tyler Jon Baugh, Gregory L Damhorst, Huixia Wu, Daniel Graciaa, Fuad Hudaib, David N Alter, Janetta Bryksin, Eric A Ortlund, Jeanette Guarner, Sara Auld, Sarita Shah, Wilbur Lam, Dawn Mattoon, Joseph M Johnson, David H Wilson, Madhav V Dhodapkar, Sean R Stowell, Andrew S Neish, John D Roback

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traditional cellular and live-virus methods for detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are labor- and time-intensive, and thus not suited for routine use in the clinical lab to predict vaccine efficacy and natural immune protection. Here, we report the development and validation of a rapid, high throughput method for measuring SARS-CoV-2 nAbs against native-like trimeric spike proteins. This assay uses a blockade of human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE-2) binding (BoAb) approach in an automated digital immunoassay on the Quanterix HD-X platform. BoAb assays using Wuhan-WT (vaccine strain), delta (B.1.167.2), omicron BA1 and BA2 variant viral strains showed strong correlation …

Correlations Between Mental Health, Physical Activity, And Body Composition In American College Students After The Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown, Luis Torres, Manuela C Caciula, Alin S Tomoiaga, Carmen Gugu-Gramatopol

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had forced American college students to significantly reduce their daily energy expenditure and increase their sedentary behaviors, thus presumably increasing mental health symptoms, decreasing physical activity levels, and enhancing the promotion of unhealthy eating habits. This study aimed to explore the correlations between mental health symptoms, physical activity levels, and body composition in college students in the years following the pandemic, focusing on the lingering effects of lockdown measures. American college students completed pre-existing, well-validated surveys for both mental health (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire—Long Form). Body …

Comparison Between Viral Vector And Mrna Based Covid-19 Vaccination In Prevalence And Severity Of Regional Immune Reactions, And 18f-Fdg Pet/Ct Features, Narjess Ayati, Scott Evans, S Rasoul Zakavi, Simon M Gruenewald

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective(s):

The coronavirus pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 commenced in late 2019, and global wide vaccination appears to be the only reasonable solution to fight this dreadful virus. There are two main types of COVID-19 immunization using viral vector and mRNA-based vaccines. However, the impact of each of type on 18F-FDG PET/CT needs to be accurately assessed. This study aimed to compare the 18F-FDG PET/CT features of these two types of COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods:

A total of 188 patients referred for 18F-FDG PET/CT with a recent history of either BioNTech/Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination, and a control group of 40 patients …

Ramipril For The Treatment Of Covid-19: Ramic, A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial, Daniel Q Huang, Veeral Ajmera, Christian Tomaszewski, Andrew Lafree, Ricki Bettencourt, Wesley K Thompson, Davey M Smith, Atul Malhotra, Ravindra L Mehta, Vaishal Tolia, Jeffrey Yin, Paul A Insel, Stone Leachman, Jinho Jung, Summer Collier, Lisa Richards, Kristin Woods, Maral Amangurbanova, Archana Bhatt, Xinlian Zhang, Oana M Penciu, Stuart Zarich, Tamrat Retta, Michelle S Harkins, J Pedro Teixeira, Brian Chinnock, Netanya S Utay, Jordan E Lake, Rohit Loomba

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Retrospective studies report that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) may reduce the severity of COVID-19, but prospective data on de novo treatment with ACEIs are limited. The RAMIC trial was a randomized, multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind, allocation-concealed clinical trial to examine the efficacy of de novo ramipril versus placebo for the treatment of COVID-19.

Methods: Eligible participants were aged 18 years and older with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, recruited from urgent care clinics, emergency departments, and hospital inpatient wards at eight sites in the USA. Participants were randomly assigned to daily ramipril 2.5 mg or placebo orally in a …

Association Of Social Vulnerability And Covid-19 Mortality Rates In Texas Between 15 March 2020, And 21 July 2022: An Ecological Analysis, Dennis Ogeto Nyachoti, Nalini Ranjit, Ryan Ramphul, Leah D Whigham, Andrew E Springer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite the key role of social vulnerability such as economic disadvantage in health outcomes, research is limited on the impact of social vulnerabilities on COVID-19-related deaths, especially at the state and county level in the USA.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional ecologic analysis of COVID-19 mortality by the county-level Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (MH SVI) and each of its components in Texas. Negative binomial regression (NBR) analyses were used to estimate the association between the composite MH SVI (and its components) and COVID-19 mortality.

RESULTS: A 0.1-unit increase in the overall MH SVI (IRR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.04-1.55; …

Neuroprotective Agents With Therapeutic Potential For Covid-19, César A Zaa, Clara Espitia, Karen L Reyes-Barrera, Zhiqiang An, Marco A Velasco-Velázquez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

COVID-19 patients can exhibit a wide range of clinical manifestations affecting various organs and systems. Neurological symptoms have been reported in COVID-19 patients, both during the acute phase of the illness and in cases of long-term COVID. Moderate symptoms include ageusia, anosmia, altered mental status, and cognitive impairment, and in more severe cases can manifest as ischemic cerebrovascular disease and encephalitis. In this narrative review, we delve into the reported neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19, as well as the underlying mechanisms contributing to them. These mechanisms include direct damage to neurons, inflammation, oxidative stress, and protein misfolding. We further investigate …

Helping Frontline Workers In Texas-A Framework For Resource Development, Karima Lalani, Meredith O'Neal, Simone Lee Joannou, Bhanumathi Gopal, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders …

Efficacy And Safety Of Mas825 (Anti-Il-1Β/Il-18) In Covid-19 Patients With Pneumonia And Impaired Respiratory Function, Alex D Hakim, Mustafa Awili, Hollis R O'Neal, Omar Siddiqi, Naseem Jaffrani, Richard Lee, Jeffrey S Overcash, Ann Chauffe, Terese C Hammond, Bela Patel, Michael Waters, Gerard J Criner, Alok Pachori, Guido Junge, Rafael Levitch, Jen Watts, Philip Koo, Tirtha Sengupta, Lili Yu, Michael Kiffe, Anne Pinck, Richard R Stein, Jamie Bendrick-Peart, Janet Jenkins, Marianna Rowlands, Frank Waldron-Lynch, Jesse Matthews

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

MAS825, a bispecific IL-1β/IL-18 monoclonal antibody, could improve clinical outcomes in COVID-19 pneumonia by reducing inflammasome-mediated inflammation. Hospitalized non-ventilated patients with COVID-19 pneumonia (n = 138) were randomized (1:1) to receive MAS825 (10 mg/kg single i.v.) or placebo in addition to standard of care (SoC). The primary endpoint was the composite Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score on Day 15 or on the day of discharge (whichever was earlier) with worst-case imputation for death. Other study endpoints included safety, C-reactive protein (CRP), SARS-CoV-2 presence, and inflammatory markers. On Day 15, the APACHE II score was 14.5 …

Medical Imaging Applications Of Federated Learning, Sukhveer Singh Sandhu, Hamed Taheri Gorji, Pantea Tavakolian, Kouhyar Tavakolian, Alireza Akhbardeh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Since its introduction in 2016, researchers have applied the idea of Federated Learning (FL) to several domains ranging from edge computing to banking. The technique's inherent security benefits, privacy-preserving capabilities, ease of scalability, and ability to transcend data biases have motivated researchers to use this tool on healthcare datasets. While several reviews exist detailing FL and its applications, this review focuses solely on the different applications of FL to medical imaging datasets, grouping applications by diseases, modality, and/or part of the body. This Systematic Literature review was conducted by querying and consolidating results from ArXiv, IEEE Xplorer, and PubMed. Furthermore, …

Parent-Reported Provider Recommendation Of Hpv Vaccination Among Minority Adolescents Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Findings From The National Immunization Survey-Teen, 2019-2021, Chinenye Lynette Ejezie, Paula Cuccaro, Casey Durand, Lara Savas, Ross Shegog

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Provider recommendation of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among adolescents has steadily improved over the years, however, limited research has been conducted to examine if the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this positive trend in parent-reported provider recommendation among minority adolescents. Therefore, we conducted the present study to determine if there is an association between the pandemic and parent-reported provider recommendation of HPV vaccine among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic adolescents. We also examined whether any changes in parent-reported provider recommendation in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021 differed by race or ethnicity. Using a cross-sectional design to examine data from the National Immunization …

Recent Covid-19 Infection Is Associated With Increased Mortality In The Ambulatory Surgery Population, George W Williams, Talha Mubashir, Julius Balogh, Mohsen Rezapour, Jingfan Hu, Biai Dominique, Nischal K Gautam, Hongyin Lai, Hunza S Ahmad, Xiaojin Li, Yan Huang, Guo-Qiang Zhang, Vahed Maroufy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The effect of COVID-19 infection on post-operative mortality and the optimal timing to perform ambulatory surgery from diagnosis date remains unclear in this population. Our study was to determine whether a history of COVID-19 diagnosis leads to a higher risk of all-cause mortality following ambulatory surgery.

METHODS: This cohort constitutes retrospective data obtained from the Optum dataset containing 44,976 US adults who were tested for COVID-19 up to 6 months before surgery and underwent ambulatory surgery between March 2020 to March 2021. The primary outcome was the risk of all-cause mortality between the COVID-19 positive and negative patients grouped …

Risk Of Covid-19 After Natural Infection Or Vaccination, Anne-Marie Rick, Matthew B Laurens, Ying Huang, Chenchen Yu, Thomas C S Martin, Carina A Rodriguez, Christina A Rostad, Rebone M Maboa, Lindsey R Baden, Hana M El Sahly, Beatriz Grinsztejn, Glenda E Gray, Cynthia L Gay, Peter B Gilbert, Holly E Janes, James G Kublin, Yunda Huang, Brett Leav, Ian Hirsch, Frank Struyf, Lisa M Dunkle, Kathleen M Neuzil, Lawrence Corey, Paul A Goepfert, Stephen R Walsh, Dean Follmann, Karen L Kotloff

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: While vaccines have established utility against COVID-19, phase 3 efficacy studies have generally not comprehensively evaluated protection provided by previous infection or hybrid immunity (previous infection plus vaccination). Individual patient data from US government-supported harmonized vaccine trials provide an unprecedented sample population to address this issue. We characterized the protective efficacy of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and hybrid immunity against COVID-19 early in the pandemic over three-to six-month follow-up and compared with vaccine-associated protection.

METHODS: In this post-hoc cross-protocol analysis of the Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we allocated participants into four groups based on previous-infection …

Spanish-Language Communication Of Covid-19 Information Across Us Local Health Department Websites, Isabelle S Kusters, Amanda M Gutierrez, Julianna M Dean, Mark Sommer, Anna Klyueva

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new urgency to a longstanding problem: the US health system is not well-equipped to accommodate the country's large limited English proficient (LEP) population in times of national emergency. We examined the landscape of Spanish-language COVID-19 website information compared to information in English provided by health departments of the top 10 cities by population in the USA. For each city, coders evaluated three score measures (amount of information, presentation quality, and ease of navigation) for six content types (general information, symptoms, testing, prevention, vaccines, and live statistics) across six delivery modes (print resources, website text, videos, …

An Unusual Case Of Acute Scrotal Pain, Thomas Damrow, Ryan Bellinger, Judy Lin, Jennifer A Walker

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Patients frequently present to the emergency department with complaints of scrotal or testicular pain. Generally, there is an algorithmic approach to workup, which includes assessment for torsion, infection, or vascular causes, and musculoskeletal causes of pain are also sometimes considered. Spinal cord pathology, however, is less often explored as a cause of testicular pain. Here, we present a case of a 45-year-old man with end-stage renal disease and hypertension who presented with acute testicular pain. After a comprehensive workup, however, the source of pain was not initially found. Progression of the patient's symptoms led to the diagnosis of spontaneous spinal …

Intravenous Aviptadil And Remdesivir For Treatment Of Covid-19-Associated Hypoxaemic Respiratory Failure In The Usa (Tesico): A Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Trial, Samuel M Brown, Christina E Barkauskas, Birgit Grund, Shweta Sharma, Andrew N Phillips, Lindsay Leither, Ithan D Peltan, Michael Lanspa, Daniel L Gilstrap, Ahmad Mourad, Kathleen Lane, Jeremy R Beitler, Alexis L Serra, Ivan Garcia, Eyad Almasri, Mohamed Fayed, Kinsley Hubel, Estelle S Harris, Elizabeth A Middleton, Macy A G Barrios, Kusum S Mathews, Neha N Goel, Samuel Acquah, Jarrod Mosier, Cameron Hypes, Elizabeth Salvagio Campbell, Akram Khan, Catherine L Hough, Jennifer G Wilson, Joseph E Levitt, Abhijit Duggal, Siddharth Dugar, Andrew J Goodwin, Charles Terry, Peter Chen, Sam Torbati, Nithya Iyer, Uriel S Sandkovsky, Nicholas J Johnson, Bryce R H Robinson, Michael A Matthay, Neil R Aggarwal, Ivor S Douglas, Jonathan D Casey, Manuel Hache-Marliere, J Georges Youssef, William Nkemdirim, Brad Leshnower, Omar Awan, Sonal Pannu, Darragh Shane O'Mahony, Prasad Manian, J W Awori Hayanga, Glenn W Wortmann, Bruno M Tomazini, Robert F Miller, Jens-Ulrik Jensen, Daniel D Murray, Nina A Bickell, Jigna Zatakia, Sarah Burris, Elizabeth S Higgs, Ven Natarajan, Robin L Dewar, Adam Schechner, Nayon Kang, Alejandro Arenas-Pinto, Fleur Hudson, Adit A Ginde, Wesley H Self, Angela J Rogers, Cathryn F Oldmixon, Haley Morin, Adriana Sanchez, Amy C Weintrob, Alexandre Biasi Cavalcanti, Anne Davis-Karim, Nicole Engen, Eileen Denning, B Taylor Thompson, Annetine C Gelijns, Virginia Kan, Victoria J Davey, Jens D Lundgren, Abdel G Babiker, James D Neaton, H Clifford Lane

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: There is a clinical need for therapeutics for COVID-19 patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure whose 60-day mortality remains at 30-50%. Aviptadil, a lung-protective neuropeptide, and remdesivir, a nucleotide prodrug of an adenosine analog, were compared with placebo among patients with COVID-19 acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure.

METHODS: TESICO was a randomised trial of aviptadil and remdesivir versus placebo at 28 sites in the USA. Hospitalised adult patients were eligible for the study if they had acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure due to confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and were within 4 days of the onset of respiratory failure. Participants could be randomly …

Cancer Patients' Preferences And Perceptions Of Advantages And Disadvantages Of Telehealth Visits During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Deepika Kumar, Nancy Gordon, Constanza Zamani, Tammy Sheehan, Ernesto Martin, Olga Egorova, Jessica Payne, Tatjana Kolevska, Elad Neeman, Raymond Liu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: We aimed to ascertain oncology patients' perceptions of telehealth versus in-person (IP) visits for different types of clinical encounters.

METHODS: We surveyed adults undergoing cancer treatment at Kaiser Permanente Northern California infusion centers between November 2021 and May 2022 using a self-administered questionnaire. Patients were asked about visit modality preferences (video, phone, and IP) for six types of clinical discussions, overall advantages and disadvantages of telehealth (video or phone) versus IP modalities, and barriers to video visit use.

RESULTS: The 839 patients who completed surveys in English were 63% female; median age 63 years; 64% White; and 73% college-educated …

Current Curricular Trends After The Covid-19 Pandemic: A National Survey Of Psychiatry Residency Programs, Jeff Wang Jin, Kacy Smith, Amanda Helminiak, Vineeth John, Hanjing Emily Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many psychiatry residencies (academic, community, and hybrid programs) have adopted different learning modalities to preserve a high quality of educational training. There is minimal data on specific program adaptations, related change perspectives, and program type stratification. This study sought to examine trends in curriculum changes in accredited psychiatry residency programs in the United States.

METHODS: Program directors of accredited general psychiatry programs in the United States were surveyed to assess both general program details and changes in educational content, delivery, and perspectives with regard to program curricula.

RESULTS: A total of 63 program directors out …

Global Blood Pressure Screening During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Results From The May Measurement Month 2021 Campaign, Thomas Beaney, Wei Wang, Markus P Schlaich, Aletta E Schutte, George S Stergiou, Luis Alcocer, Jafar Alsaid, Alejandro Bimbo Diaz, Rafael Hernandez-Hernandez, Mohammad Ishaq, Jacek Jozwiak, Nadia Khan, Gaia Kiru, Harsha Mccardle, Augustine Nonso Odili, Wook Bum Pyun, Cesar A Romero, Jiguang Wang, Neil R Poulter, Mmm Investigators

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Raised blood pressure (BP) remains the biggest risk factor contributing to the global burden of disease and mortality, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. May Measurement Month (MMM), an annual global screening campaign aims to highlight the importance of BP measurement by evaluating global awareness, treatment and control rates among adults with hypertension. In 2021, we assessed the global burden of these rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: Screening sites were set up in 54 countries between May and November 2021 and screenees were recruited by convenience sampling. Three sitting BPs were measured, and a questionnaire completed including demographic, lifestyle and …

Interstitial Lung Abnormalities After Hospitalization For Covid-19 In Patients With Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study, Sungryong Noh, Christopher Bertini, Isabel Mira-Avendano, Maryam Kaous, Bela Patel, Saadia A Faiz, Vickie R Shannon, Diwakar D Balachandran, Lara Bashoura, Roberto Adachi, Scott E Evans, Burton Dickey, Carol Wu, Girish S Shroff, Joanna-Grace Manzano, Bruno Granwehr, Shannon Holloway, Kodwo Dickson, Alyssa Mohammed, Mayoora Muthu, Hui Song, Caroline Chung, Jia Wu, Lyndon Lee, Ying Jiang, Fareed Khawaja, Ajay Sheshadri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Survivors of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia often develop persistent respiratory symptom and interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs) after infection. Risk factors for ILA development and duration of ILA persistence after SARS-CoV-2 infection are not well described in immunocompromised hosts, such as cancer patients.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 95 patients at a major cancer center and 45 patients at a tertiary referral center. We collected clinical and radiographic data during the index hospitalization for COVID-19 pneumonia and measured pneumonia severity using a semi-quantitative radiographic score, the Radiologic Severity Index (RSI). Patients were evaluated in post-COVID-19 clinics at 3 and …

Dynamics Of Inflammatory Responses After Sars-Cov-2 Infection By Vaccination Status In The Usa: A Prospective Cohort Study, Xianming Zhu, Kelly A Gebo, Alison G Abraham, Feben Habtehyimer, Eshan U Patel, Oliver Laeyendecker, Thomas J Gniadek, Reinaldo E Fernandez, Owen R Baker, Malathi Ram, Edward R Cachay, Judith S Currier, Yuriko Fukuta, Jonathan M Gerber, Sonya L Heath, Barry Meisenberg, Moises A Huaman, Adam C Levine, Aarthi Shenoy, Shweta Anjan, Janis E Blair, Daniel Cruser, Donald N Forthal, Laura L Hammitt, Seble Kassaye, Giselle S Mosnaim, Bela Patel, James H Paxton, Jay S Raval, Catherine G Sutcliffe, Matthew Abinante, Patrick Broderick, Valerie Cluzet, Marie Elena Cordisco, Benjamin Greenblatt, Joann Petrini, William Rausch, David Shade, Karen Lane, Amy L Gawad, Sabra L Klein, Andrew Pekosz, Shmuel Shoham, Arturo Casadevall, Evan M Bloch, Daniel Hanley, David J Sullivan, Aaron A R Tobian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cytokines and chemokines play a critical role in the response to infection and vaccination. We aimed to assess the longitudinal association of COVID-19 vaccination with cytokine and chemokine concentrations and trajectories among people with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

METHODS: In this longitudinal, prospective cohort study, blood samples were used from participants enrolled in a multi-centre randomised trial assessing the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy for ambulatory COVID-19. The trial was conducted in 23 outpatient sites in the USA. In this study, participants (aged ≥18 years) were restricted to those with COVID-19 before vaccination or with breakthrough infections who had blood samples …

The Prevalence Of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Racial And Ethnic Minority Adolescents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Chinenye Lynette Ejezie, Lara S Savas, Casey Durand, Ross Shegog, Paula Cuccaro

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among adolescents has steadily improved over the past several years. However, research conducted to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this positive trend in HPV vaccine initiation among racial and ethnic minority adolescents is limited. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine if the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in the US health-care sector affected the increasing HPV vaccine initiation among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic adolescents aged 13-17 years.

METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design to examine data from the National Immunization Survey-Teen (2019-2021), logistic regression and moderation analysis were used to model race-specific variations …

Automated Lung Ultrasound Pulmonary Disease Quantification Using An Unsupervised Machine Learning Technique For Covid-19, Hersh Sagreiya, Michael A Jacobs, Alireza Akhbardeh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

COVID-19 is an ongoing global health pandemic. Although COVID-19 can be diagnosed with various tests such as PCR, these tests do not establish pulmonary disease burden. Whereas point-of-care lung ultrasound (POCUS) can directly assess the severity of characteristic pulmonary findings of COVID-19, the advantage of using US is that it is inexpensive, portable, and widely available for use in many clinical settings. For automated assessment of pulmonary findings, we have developed an unsupervised learning technique termed the calculated lung ultrasound (CLU) index. The CLU can quantify various types of lung findings, such as A or B lines, consolidations, and pleural …

Prevalence Of Symptoms ≤12 Months After Acute Illness, By Covid-19 Testing Status Among Adults — United States, December 2020–March 2023, Juan Carlos C Montoy, James Ford, Huihui Yu, Michael Gottlieb, Dana Morse, Michelle Santangelo, Kelli N O'Laughlin, Kevin Schaeffer, Pamela Logan, Kristin Rising, Mandy J Hill, Lauren E Wisk, Wafah Salah, Ahamed H Idris, Ryan M Huebinger, Erica S Spatz, Robert M Rodriguez, Robin E Klabbers, Kristyn Gatling, Ralph C Wang, Joann G Elmore, Samuel A Mcdonald, Kari A Stephens, Robert A Weinstein, Arjun K Venkatesh, Sharon Saydah, Innovative Support For Patients With Sars-Cov-2 Infections Registry (Inspire) Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

To further the understanding of post-COVID conditions, and provide a more nuanced description of symptom progression, resolution, emergence, and reemergence after SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-like illness, analysts examined data from the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE), a prospective multicenter cohort study. This report includes analysis of data on self-reported symptoms collected from 1,296 adults with COVID-like illness who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using a Food and Drug Administration-approved polymerase chain reaction or antigen test at the time of enrollment and reported symptoms at 3-month intervals for 12 months. Prevalence of any symptom decreased substantially between baseline …