Malnutrition risk as a negative prognostic factor in COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: SARS CoV-2 infection is a disease, whose prevalence has drastically risen in the past year. The aim of this study is to examine a possible association between the risk of malnutrition, clinical outcomes following hospitalisation and morbidity at discharge. METHODS: This study has analysed the medical records of 652 patients hospitalised at Humanitas Research Hospital (Milan, Italy) between 01/03 and 30/04/2020. The risk of malnutrition was identified with the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). RESULTS: The cohort was composed of 515 patients. The MUST scale is significantly associated to malnutrition evaluating the morbidity at discharge (discharged 0.27 ± 0.68, discharged with problems 0.40 ± 0.93, deceased 0.64 ± 0.93, p < 0.001), and the clinical outcome following hospitalisation (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.04-1.51, p = 0.019) is maintained even after correction for age, treated hypertension, admission to an intensive care unit and oxygen therapy). A subgroup analysis addressing patients with a BMI ≥30 shows a significant association between comorbidities such as: arterial hypertension (HR 4.95, 95% CI 1.10-22.22, p = 0.037), diabetes (HR 3.37, 95% CI 1.04-10.89, p = 0.043) and renal failure (HR 3.94, 95% CI 1.36-11.36, p = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the risk of malnutrition is a noteworthy indicator that impacts both the clinical outcomes and morbidity at discharge.

First Trimester Pregnancy Outcomes in a Large ART Center From the Lombardy County (Italy) During the Peak COVID-19 Pandemic. (preprint)

This study evaluates if the pandemic has influenced ART outcome in an asymptomatic infertile population treated at one of the major COVID-19 epicenters during the weeks immediately preceding the lockdown. All ART procedures during two time periods were used for comparison: November 1st, 2018 to February 28th, 2019 (non COVID-19 risk) and November 1st, 2019 to February 29th, 2020 (COVID-19 risk). We analyzed 1,749 fresh cycles (883 non COVID-19 risk and 866 COVID- 19 risk), 1,166 embryo and 63 oocytes warming cycles (538 and 37 during non COVID and 628 and 26 during COVID-19 risk respectively). Clinical pregnancies per cycle were not different: 370 (25,38%) in non COVID vs 415 (27,30%) (p=0.237) during COVID-19 risk. There were no differences in biochemical pregnancy rates 52 (3,57%) vs 38 (2,50%) (p=0.089) nor in ectopic pregnancies 4 (1,08%) vs 3 (0,72%) (p=0,594), spontaneous abortions 84 (22,70%) vs 103 (24,82%) p=0,487, intrauterine ongoing pregnancies 282 (76,22%) vs 309 (74,46%) p=0.569. A multivariate analysis investigating differences in abortion rate showed no differences between the two times frame. Our results support no differences in asymptomatic infertile couples’ ART outcomes between pre COVID and COVID-19 period in one of early and most severe pandemic area.