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Background and objective: With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, rates of in-hospital antimicrobial use increased due to perceived bacterial and fungal coinfections along with COVID-19. We describe the incidence of these coinfections and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to help guide effective antimicrobial use in this population. Setting: This study was conducted in 3 tertiary-care referral university teaching hospitals in New York City. Methods: This multicenter retrospective observational cohort study involved all patients admitted with COVID-19 from January 1, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Variables of interest were extracted from a de-identified data set of all COVID-19 infections across the health system. Population statistics are presented as median with interquartile range (IQR) or proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as indicated. Results: Among 7,209 of patients admitted with COVID-19, 663 (9.2%) had a positive culture from the respiratory tract or blood sometime during their initial hospital admission. Positive respiratory cultures occurred found in 449 (6.2%) patients, and 20% were collected within 48 hours of admission. Blood culture positivity occurred in 334 patients (4.6%), with 33.5% identified within 48 hours of admission. A higher proportion of patients received antimicrobials in the first wave than in the later pandemic period (82.4% vs 52.0%). Antimicrobials were prescribed to 70.1% of inpatients, with a median of 6 antimicrobial days per patient. Infection-free survival decreased over the course of hospitalization. Conclusions: We detected a very low incidence of coinfection with COVID-19 at admission. A longer duration of hospitalization was associated with an increased risk of coinfection. Antimicrobial use far exceeded the true incidence and detection of coinfections in these patients.
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BACKGROUND: Effective therapies to combat coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) are urgently needed. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has in vitro antiviral activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but the clinical benefit of HCQ in treating COVID-19 is unclear. Randomized controlled trials are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of HCQ for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, double-blind randomized clinical trial of HCQ among patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Subjects were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to HCQ or placebo for 5 days and followed for 30 days. The primary efficacy outcome was a severe disease progression composite end point (death, intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and/or vasopressor use) at day 14. RESULTS: A total of 128 patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Baseline demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics were similar between the HCQ (nâ =â 67) and placebo (nâ =â 61) arms. At day 14, 11 (16.4%) subjects assigned to HCQ and 6 (9.8%) subjects assigned to placebo met the severe disease progression end point, but this did not achieve statistical significance (Pâ =â .350). There were no significant differences in COVID-19 clinical scores, number of oxygen-free days, SARS-CoV-2 clearance, or adverse events between HCQ and placebo. HCQ was associated with a slight increase in mean corrected QT interval, an increased D-dimer, and a trend toward an increased length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: In hospitalized patients with COVID-19, our data suggest that HCQ does not prevent severe outcomes or improve clinical scores. However, our conclusions are limited by a relatively small sample size, and larger randomized controlled trials or pooled analyses are needed.
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Background: Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) have poor outcomes and frequently develop comorbid conditions, including cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation. The implications of CMV reactivation in this setting are unknown. We aimed to investigate if treatment of CMV viremia improved in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with COVID-19. Methods: In this single-center retrospective study, we analyzed clinical outcomes in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia and CMV viremia admitted to an ICU from March 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, who either received treatment (ganciclovir and/or valganciclovir) or received no treatment. The primary outcome was all-cause in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were total hospital length of stay (LOS), ICU LOS, requirement for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support, duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), and predictors of in-hospital mortality. Results: A total of 80 patients were included, 43 patients in the treatment group and 37 in the control group. Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. CMV-treated patients were more likely to test positive for CMV earlier in their course, more likely to be on ECMO, and received higher total steroid doses on average. In-hospital mortality was similar between the 2 groups (37.2% vs 43.2.0%; P = .749). There was no significant difference in hospital LOS, though CMV-treated patients had a longer ICU LOS. Conclusions: Treatment of CMV viremia did not decrease in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with COVID-19, but the sample size was limited. CMV viremia was significantly associated with total steroid dose received and longer ICU stay.
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Background and objective: With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, rates of in-hospital antimicrobial use increased due to perceived bacterial and fungal coinfections along with COVID-19. We describe the incidence of these coinfections and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to help guide effective antimicrobial use in this population. Setting: This study was conducted in 3 tertiary-care referral university teaching hospitals in New York City. Methods: This multicenter retrospective observational cohort study involved all patients admitted with COVID-19 from January 1, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Variables of interest were extracted from a de-identified data set of all COVID-19 infections across the health system. Population statistics are presented as median with interquartile range (IQR) or proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as indicated. Results: Among 7,209 of patients admitted with COVID-19, 663 (9.2%) had a positive culture from the respiratory tract or blood sometime during their initial hospital admission. Positive respiratory cultures occurred found in 449 (6.2%) patients, and 20% were collected within 48 hours of admission. Blood culture positivity occurred in 334 patients (4.6%), with 33.5% identified within 48 hours of admission. A higher proportion of patients received antimicrobials in the first wave than in the later pandemic period (82.4% vs 52.0%). Antimicrobials were prescribed to 70.1% of inpatients, with a median of 6 antimicrobial days per patient. Infection-free survival decreased over the course of hospitalization. Conclusions: We detected a very low incidence of coinfection with COVID-19 at admission. A longer duration of hospitalization was associated with an increased risk of coinfection. Antimicrobial use far exceeded the true incidence and detection of coinfections in these patients.
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Background: The epidemiology of nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBSIs) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is poorly understood, due in part to substantial disease heterogeneity resulting from multiple potential pathogens. Methods: We identified risk factors for NBSIs and examined the association between NBSIs and mortality in a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2 New York City hospitals during the height of the pandemic. We adjusted for the potential effects of factors likely to confound that association, including age, race, illness severity upon admission, and underlying health status. Results: Between January 1 and October 1, 2020, 1403 patients had a positive blood culture, and 79 and 101 met the stringent criteria for NBSI among non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 patients, respectively. NBSIs occurred almost exclusively among patients who were severely ill with COVID-19 at hospital admission. NBSIs were associated with elevated mortality, even after adjusting for baseline differences in COVID-19 illness (55% cases vs 45% controls; Pâ =â .13). Mortality was concentrated in patients with early-onset pneumonia caused by S. aureus and gram-negative bacteria. Less virulent Candida (49%) and Enterococcus (12%) species were the predominant cause of NBSI in the latter stages of hospitalization, after antibiotic treatment and COVID-19 treatments that attenuate immune response. Most Enterococcus and Candida infections did not have an identifiable source and were not associated with common risk factors for infection by these organisms. Conclusions: Pathogen species and mortality exhibited temporal differences. Early recognition of risk factors among COVID-19 patients could potentially decrease NBSI-associated mortality through early COVID-19 and antimicrobial treatment.
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Background The epidemiology of nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBSI) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is poorly understood, due in part to substantial disease heterogeneity resulting from multiple potential pathogens. Methods We identified risk factors for NBSI and examined the association between NBSI and mortality in a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in two New York City hospitals during the pandemic height. We adjusted for the potential effects of factors likely to confound that association, including age, race, illness severity upon admission and underlying health status. Results Between January 1-October 1, 2020, 1403 patients had a positive blood culture, 79 and 101 met stringent criteria of NBSI among non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 patients, respectively. NBSI occurred almost exclusively among patients who were severely ill with COVID-19 at hospital admission. NBSI were associated with elevated mortality, even after adjusting for baseline differences in COVID-19 illness (55% cases vs 45% controls,p= 0.13). Mortality was concentrated in patients with early onset pneumonia caused by S. aureus and Gram-negative bacteria. Less virulent Candida (49%) and Enterococcus (12%) species were the predominant cause of NBSI in the latter stages of hospitalization, after antibiotic treatment and COVID-19 treatments that attenuate immune response. Most Enterococcus and Candida infections did not have an identifiable source and were not associated with common risk factors for infection by these organisms. Conclusions Pathogen species and mortality exhibited temporal differences. Early recognition of risk factors among COVID-19 patients could potentially decrease NBSI-associated mortality through early COVID-19 and antimicrobial treatment.
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Background In-hospital antimicrobial use among COVID-19 patients is widespread due to perceived bacterial and fungal co-infections. We aim to describe the incidence of these co-infections and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to elucidate data for guiding effective antimicrobial use in this population. Methods This retrospective study included all patients admitted with COVID-19 from January 1, 2020, to February 1, 2021 at any of the three teaching hospitals of the NYU Langone Health system. Variables of interest were extracted from the health system’s de-identified clinical database. The nadir of hospital admissions between the first and second peaks of hospital admissions in the dataset was used to delineate the First Wave and Late Pandemic periods of observation. A cut-off of 48 hours after admission was used to differentiate Co-infections and Secondary infections respectively among isolates of clinically relevant bacterial or fungal pathogens in blood or sputum samples. Population statistics are presented as median with interquartile range (IQR) or total numbers with percentages. Results 663 of 7,213 (9.2%) inpatients were found to have a positive bacterial or fungal culture of the respiratory tract or blood during the entire course of their initial admission at our hospitals for COVID-19. Positive respiratory cultures were found in 437 (6.1%) patients, with 94 (1.3%) being collected within 48 hours of admission. Blood culture positivity occurred in 333 patients (4.6%), with 115 (1.6%) identified within 48 hours of admission. Infection-free survival decreased with duration of hospitalization, with rate of secondary infections steadily rising after the second week of hospitalization as seen in Figure 1. 70.2% of inpatients received antimicrobials for a median duration of 6 antimicrobial days (IQR 3.0 – 12.0) per patient. A higher proportion of patients received antimicrobials in the first wave than in the late pandemic period (82.6% vs. 51.8%). Table 1. Table 2 Figure 1 Infection free survival represented as duration of admission in days on the X-axis, and proportion of admitted patients remaining infection-free in the Y-axis. The blue line represents blood cultures and the orange line represents sputum cultures. Conclusion There was a very low incidence of co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 infection at admission. A longer duration of hospitalization was associated with an increased risk of secondary infections. Antimicrobial use far exceeded the true incidence and detection of co-infections in these patients. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures
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As New York became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic early on, clinicians were challenged to provide optimal medical and pharmaceutical care, despite the paucity of supporting literature and guidance. We sought to describe prescribing patterns and outcomes of physician response to the urgent need to treat COVID-19 patients before initiation of randomized clinical trials. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients with COVID-19 initially admitted to acute care services during March 2020. Critically ill patients requiring intensive care unit level of care on admission were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 639 consecutive patients (supportive care, n = 247; treatment n = 392) were included in the analysis. Overall, the 28-day mortality rate was 12.2%. The mortality was 8.7% higher in the treatment group (15.6% vs 6.9% in the supportive care group, P < 0.001). Treatment was not protective against progression to severe disease (18.4% vs 3.6% with supportive care, P < 0.0001). Time to defervescence, duration of oxygen support, and hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay were also higher in the treatment group. In multivariate analysis, 60 years or older, presence of severe disease, and need for ICU admission were identified as independent predictors of 28-day mortality. There were 41 (10.5%) adverse event in the treatment group, with the majority being QT prolongation and gastrointestinal effects. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of hospitalized patients admitted to acute care services, treatment with hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir or both could not be shown to improve mortality, progression to severe disease, or clinical response.