Prioritization of patients with psychiatric comorbidities in vaccination during COVID- 19 pandemic

This article explores that vaccination appears to be safe in psychiatric patient population as well as the general population. Studies performed by Psychiatric Association of Turkey emphasize the need for vaccination in psychiatric patients similar to other patients with chronic medical comorbidities by analyzing studies performed especially in European countries. To conclude, we recommend prioritization of patients with psychiatric comorbidities during vaccination period and increased effort to vaccinate psychiatric inpatients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Should we continue to use renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blockers in patients with COVID-19?

Patients with chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure and hypertension have an increased risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related death. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) blockers are commonly prescribed to decrease morbidity and mortality in these conditions. Following the pre-clinical demonstration of COVID-19 viral entry into cells via angiotensin-converting enzyme-2, the use of RAS blockers was questioned in infected individuals. Theodorakopoulou et al. extensively review the pathophysiology behind that hypothesis and observational or clinical trials on RAS blockers and COVID-19. Despite being a scientific hot spot of an ongoing debate, discontinuation of RAS blockers is not associated with improved clinical outcomes in COVID-19 and may have potential harmful effects, including exacerbation of the underlying disease.

Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome and kidney diseases: what do we know?

COVID-19, a disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), is a major global threat that has turned into a pandemic. Despite the emergence of multiple vaccination alternatives and developing therapeutic options, dramatic short- and long-term clinical outcomes have been recorded with more than 250 million infected people and over 5 million deaths as of November 2021. COVID-19 presents various respiratory, cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric, musculoskeletal and kidney features during the acute phase; nevertheless, renal involvement in the post-infection period has recently been emphasized. The present review aims to evaluate the growing literature on kidney involvement in the SARS-CoV-2 infection along with clinical features reported both in the acute phase of the infection and in the post-acute COVID-19 period by assessing potential pathophysiological frameworks explaining such conditions. Chronic kidney disease and development of acute kidney injury (AKI) in the course of initial hospitalization are associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. Moreover, growing evidence suggests a decline in renal function in the 6-to-12-month follow-up period even in patients without any signs of AKI during the acute phase. Despite such concerns there are no guidelines regulating the follow-up period or therapeutic alternatives for such patient population. In conclusion, the burden of COVID-19 on the kidney is yet to be determined. Future prospective large scale studies are needed with long follow-up periods assessing kidney involvement via multiple parameters such as biopsy studies, urinalysis, measurement of serum creatinine and cystatin C, directly measured glomerular filtration rate, and assessment of tubular function via urinary ß2-microglobulin measurements.

COVID-19 pandemic and mental health concerns: What should we expect?

This letter is focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health concerns. As the third recent outbreak of coronaviruses following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)- CoV and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic with now more than 2.5 million confirmed cases and 170.000 mortality originated at Chinese town Wuhan in December 2019. Large-scale researches on psychological impacts on COVID-19 pandemic on the general population are limited in number, though, with high significance. Despite the increased need for psychological support and interventions by mental healthcare workers, the general population is reluctant to seek professional help primarily due to quarantine and concerns regarding the higher risk of getting infected in a hospital setting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Pathological features of COVID-19 infection from biopsy and autopsy series.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in December 2019 in Chinese town Wuhan and considered as a pandemic by World Health Organization. The disease has variety of symptoms including fever, shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, loss of smell and taste and diarrhea. While the majority of cases have mild symptoms, some progress to viral pneumonia, multi-organ failure, or cytokine storm and mortality is mostly caused by hypoxemic respiratory failure. Until now, more than 3.5 million people worldwide were infected and more than 240.000 mortality has been occurred. Thus, there is now evidence the disease may affect variety of organs according to accumulating biopsy and autopsy studies. Such pathological studies have potential role on the understanding of clinical outcomes and in the development of novel targeted therapeutic approaches. Given these aforementioned data, in the current manuscript we have summarized the pathological features of COVID-19 derived from biopsy and autopsy series.