Noteworthy sequelae after COVID-19 pneumonia in a patient with heart failure due to cardiomyopathy.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is endemic worldwide. Cardiovascular disease, particularly myocarditis, is one of the most common comorbidities in patients with COVID-19. However, heart failure due to COVID-19-triggered cardiomyopathy is not well understood. Additionally, "pseudo" heart failure symptoms have been reported in patients with a compensated condition, in which the heart works well enough that symptoms are unnoticeable or very easy to manage. Here, we report a case of heart failure due to cardiomyopathy in a patient with COVID-19 and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome after heart failure treatment. Learning objective: Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) symptoms after coronavirus disease 2019 may be mistaken for heart failure symptoms; thus, it is essential to suspect POTS when symptoms such as shortness of breath and palpitations are noted upon standing, along with the relevant physical findings.

Preventing thrombosis in a COVID-19 patient by combined therapy with nafamostat and heparin during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Background: Preventing thrombosis in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can be life-saving in cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19); however, circuit thrombosis is a complication. This report describes a COVID-19 patient treated with nafamostat and heparin to prevent circuit thrombosis during ECMO support. Case presentation: A 63-year-old man was transferred to our hospital with respiratory failure due to COVID-19 pneumonia. He was provided venous-venous ECMO to maintain oxygenation. During ECMO support, occlusive circuit thrombosis developed despite systemic anticoagulation therapy with heparin. He was subsequently given combination therapy with nafamostat and heparin. Although the combination therapy could prevent circuit thrombosis, it was converted to heparin monotherapy because of hyperkalemia and hemothorax. After tracheostomy and a gradual improvement in oxygenation, ECMO was discontinued. He was transferred to another hospital for further rehabilitation. Conclusion: Combination therapy with nafamostat and heparin can prevent circuit thrombosis during ECMO. However, bleeding can still develop with this combination therapy during ECMO.

The peripheral lymphocyte count as a predictor of severe COVID-19 and the effect of treatment with ciclesonide.

We investigated whether reduced lymphocyte count, could predict the development of severe COVID-19. We also examined whether ciclesonide could prevent the development of severe COVID-19 among patients with the predictors. This was a retrospective cohort study. Of the 30 included patients, 12, 14, and 4 were allocated to severe pneumonia, non-severe pneumonia, and non-pneumonia groups, respectively. The group of the low level of lymphocyte counts of the sixth day after onset was significantly intubated approximately three days later. The incidence of the severe pneumoniae requiring intubation are significantly lower in the patients treated with ciclesonide than without it (11.18 % vs 83.33 %, p = 0.0033). The lymphocyte count after ciclesonide treatment in the non-severe pneumonia group was significantly higher (p = 0. 0156) than before. The lymphocyte count could be used to identify patients that may develop severe COVID-19. Treatment with ciclesonide may prevent the development of severe COVID-19.