1113: COVID REDUX: THE RISK TO CRITICALLY ILL CANCER PATIENTS REMAINS HIGH

Even with higher hospital mortality Omicron patients also seemed to be less acutely ill as their requirement for mechanical ventilation, vasopressors and prone positioning was lower. We sought to compare the characteristics of critically ill cancer patients with Omicron variant to those infected with the ancestral strain. B Conclusions: b Critically ill cancer patients infected with the Omicron variant may be less likely to undergo tracheostomy however, they are more likely to die during their hospitalization. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Critical Care Medicine is the property of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Long-Term Sequelae of COVID-19 in Experimental Mice.

We recently reported acute COVID-19 symptoms, clinical status, weight loss, multi-organ pathological changes, and animal death in a murine hepatitis virus-1 (MHV-1) coronavirus mouse model of COVID-19, which were similar to that observed in humans with COVID-19. We further examined long-term (12 months post-infection) sequelae of COVID-19 in these mice. Congested blood vessels, perivascular cavitation, pericellular halos, vacuolation of neuropils, pyknotic nuclei, acute eosinophilic necrosis, necrotic neurons with fragmented nuclei, and vacuolation were observed in the brain cortex 12 months post-MHV-1 infection. These changes were associated with increased reactive astrocytes and microglia, hyperphosphorylated TDP-43 and tau, and a decrease in synaptic protein synaptophysin-1, suggesting the possible long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on defective neuronal integrity. The lungs showed severe inflammation, bronchiolar airway wall thickening due to fibrotic remodeling, bronchioles with increased numbers of goblet cells in the epithelial lining, and bronchiole walls with increased numbers of inflammatory cells. Hearts showed severe interstitial edema, vascular congestion and dilation, nucleated red blood cells (RBCs), RBCs infiltrating between degenerative myocardial fibers, inflammatory cells and apoptotic bodies and acute myocyte necrosis, hypertrophy, and fibrosis. Long-term changes in the liver and kidney were less severe than those observed in the acute phase. Noteworthy, the treatment of infected mice with a small molecule synthetic peptide which prevents the binding of spike protein to its respective receptors significantly attenuated disease progression, as well as the pathological changes observed post-long-term infection. Collectively, these findings suggest that COVID-19 may result in long-term, irreversible changes predominantly in the brain, lung, and heart.

Trends in Psychiatric Admissions of Children and Adolescents During Early Corona Period Year (2020) Compared to Pre-Corona Year (2018): A Cross Sectional Study in Israel (preprint)

Background: the current study sought to assess the patterns and characteristics of psychiatric admissions among children and adolescents during the early corona period (2020) compared to a year before the corona pandemic started (2018), and analyzing on a deeper level the psychiatric admissions that were related directly to corona stressors and their correlations with sociodemographic variables. Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted in The Child and Family Guidance Unit in The Galilee Medical Center, a psychiatric department for patients aged 6-18 years. The medical records of psychiatric admissions in the year 2020 and 2018 were analyzed on the same dates. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS v.20. Since all the variables were not normally distributed according to Shapiro-Wilk, non-parametric tests were conducted, including Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Square tests. Results: the study showed 17% increase in psychiatric admissions in 2020 compared with 2018. In 2018 most admissions were at November while in 2020 most of them were at May. The most common cause of admissions in 2018 was outbursts and violence 43% while in 2020 it was suicidal thoughts and behaviors 36%. Almost a third of patients admitted in 2020 reported a corona stressor in their admission, the majority was changes in daily routines. Conclusion: Changing daily routine and inconsistency in school attendance may have been the main stress factor on children and adolescents and might have caused a rise in hospital admissions caused by suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Thus, future studies should monitor the mental health of children and adolescents during the continual corona pandemic.