ABSTRACT
Background: There have been scientific papers in the Indian setting that describe demographics, clinical characteristics, hospital course, morbidity, and death in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19);however, they are based on limited numbers of cases. The current study of patients with known outcomes enabled us to acquire a better understanding of the disease process and progression in COVID-19 individuals, as well as correlate the factors affecting the outcome. Method(s): This study was carried out at a COVID-19 tertiary care facility at Dr. D. Y.Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pune. The demographic and clinical information, laboratory parameters of admitted COVID19 patients were collected were subsequently analysed. Categorical variables were analysed using either the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Result(s): Out of 603, 515 (85.4%) patients were discharged while 88 (15.8%) patients were died. The mean age of dead COVID-19 patients was significantly higher as compared to discharged COVID-19 patients. Serum urea, Serum Creatinine, serum AST, Serum total bilirubin, Serum Conjugated Bilirubin, serum LDH, Serum CRP and Serum Ferritin, Hb, PCV, TLC, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils to lymphocyte ratio, platelets to lymphocyte ratio, ESR and D-dimer were differ significantly between discharged and dead COVID-19 cases whereas the levels of Serum ALT, Serum ALP, Serum Unconjugated bilirubin, MCV,MCH platelet count, PT and aPTT were remained comparable between discharged and dead COVID-19 cases. Multivariate analysis showed that Serum urea, D-dimer, ESR, NLR, PLR neutrophil and TLC were the significant predictors of COVID-19 death in our study. Conclusion(s): This study revealed that in hospitalised COVID-19 patients, older age, male sex, hypertension, diabetes, serum LDH, and urea levels were strongly linked to an increased risk of mortality. To enhance patient care and results, healthcare professionals should identify these aspects at the time of diagnosis. Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 has caused a pandemic since the end of the year 2019. Controversy regarding the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 in tears and conjunctival sac has created suspense throughout. Moderate to severe dry eye has been observed in the patients infected with COVID-19. Material and Method: We conducted a descriptive, prospective observational study. We enrolled 16 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria for our study. Patients affected with acute COVID-19 from 28-9-2020 to 9-10-2020 registered at our hospital and willing to participate were included. Tears and conjunctival swabs were taken at the interval of 24 h;consecutively three samples were taken from one COVID-19 infected patient. In total, 48 samples were analyzed by qRT-PCR. Result: We had 16 participants, 47% were females and 53% were males;2/16 [12.5%] patients showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in tears and conjunctival swabs. Both the infected patients were females, and they did not have any obvious abnormal ocular conditions. Schirmer strip reading, however, showed a severe dry eye in both the patients. Conclusion: We identified dry eye ranging from mild to moderate to severe [Schirmer 1 reading ranged from 2 to 8 mm] in all our patients admitted to the COVID-19 ward. The SARS-CoV-2 gene seems to be mutating. More work needs to be done to find the viral load in the tears and any abnormalities in the eyes accordingly. © Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth 2022.
ABSTRACT
Background:Pandemic situation of SARS CoV-2 has made every country to gear up quickly for the prevention, control and testing. Accordingly, India has developed the guidelines and policies and requested all medical colleges to establish the COVID-19 testing facility under the mentorship of ICMR and NABL. Methods:As we, at our college already having the central research facility, the urgent national need has made us easy to create a testing facility for the COVID-19. As per NABL guidelines to have the requirements, we have worked together with wholehearted support and active participation from Human Resource Department, Central Purchase Department, Dean Office and honourable management excellences. All the requirements like physical lab setup, necessary equip- ment’s with calibration and validation, dedicated biosafety cabinets, PPEs, biomedical waste management, UPS system, SOPs, quality consumables, trained manpower, entry protocol, working protocol, exit protocol, result reporting system made functional systematically. Accordingly, data generated and communicated to AIIMS, Nagpur and NABL, subse- quently auditing by NABL was conducted toughly and thoroughly. Results:Without NC we got the NABL Accreditation. On the basis of recommendations of AIIMS, Nagpur and NABL Ac- creditation, the ICMR has provided the login to us. Afterwards the lab started receiving the samples for COVID -19 testing. With minimum samples we started testing and reporting to ICMR, PCMC and State Govt. following all the bi- osafety measures and necessary guidelines compliances. Due to heavy load of samples in our state, authorities have requested to increase the testing capacity, so we have geared up accordingly by improving biosafety by using powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR), additional biosafety cabinets type II B2, weekly decontamination / fumigation of lab and necessary logistics and trained staff. Till now we have tested more than 6000 samples providing the results / reports within TAT of 24 hrs. We achieved 100% concordance for external quality control.