COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Laboratory Findings, Comorbidities, and Clinical Outcomes Comparing Medical Staff versus the General Population

This review compared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) laboratory findings, comorbidities, and clinical outcomes in patients from the general population versus medical staff to aid diagnosis of COVID-19 in a more timely, efficient, and accurate way. Electronic databases were searched up to 23rdMarch, 2020. The initial search yielded 6,527 studies. Following screening, 24 studies were included [18 studies (11,564 cases) of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the general public, and 6 studies (394 cases) in medical staff] in this review. Significant differences were observed in white blood cell counts (p < 0.001), lymphocyte counts (p < 0.001), platelet counts (p = 0.04), procalcitonin levels (p < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase levels (p < 0.001), and creatinine levels (p = 0.03) when comparing infected medical staff with the general public. The mortality rate was higher in the general population than in medical staff (8% versus 2%). This review showed that during the early stages of COVID-19, laboratory findings alone may not be significant predictors of infection and may just accompany increasing C-reactive protein levels, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and lactate dehydrogenase levels. In the symptomatic stage, the lymphocyte and platelet counts tended to decrease. Elevated D-dimer fibrin degradation product was associated with poor prognosis.

Modeling the recurrent failure to thrive in less than two-year children: recurrent events survival analysis

This study aimed to evaluate the failure to thrive [FTT] recurrent event over time. This longitudinal study was conducted during February 2007 to July 2009. The pri-mary outcome was growth failure. The analysis was done using 1283 children who had experi-enced FTT several times, based on recurrent events analysis. Fifty-nine percent of the children had experienced the FTT at least one time and 5.3% of them had experienced it up to four times. The Prentice-Williams-Peterson [PWP] model revealed significant relationship between diarrhea [HR=1.26], respiratory infections [HR=1.25], urinary tract infections [HR=1.51], discontinuation of breast-feeding [HR=1.96], teething [HR=1.18], initiation age of complementary feeding [HR=1.11] and hazard rate of the first FTT event. Recurrence nature of the FTT is a main problem, which taking it into account increases the accuracy in analysis of FTT event process and can lead to identify different risk factors for each FTT recurrences.