ABSTRACT
Background A novel colorectal cancer center (CCC) was developed in the Shanghai Tenth People’s hospital of Tongji University during the COVID-19 epidemic. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the CCC model in terms of three aspects. Methods This retrospective study used data from the Shanghai Tenth People’s hospital patient databases. The research hypothesis was that the CCC reduces preoperative waiting time (PWT), length of hospital stay (LOS), and costs of hospitalization, without reducing the quality of surgery. Thus, we compared the time, cost, and quality between March 1 to December 31, 2019, and March 1 to December 31, 2020. Descriptive and inferential analyses of patient demographic characteristics, time, postoperative outcomes, and inpatient costs were conducted. Results A total of 965 hospitalizations for colorectal cancer (CRC) were identified—415 in 2019 and 550 in 2020. In the CCC, PWT declined by 26.2 hours (P<0.01). Patients in the CCC express group only needed to wait for 24.5 hours before undergoing surgery, with a shorter LOS than the normal group (P<0.01). None of the patients had any symptoms of COVID-19 or were high-risk COVID-19 contacts, and the incidence of immediate postoperative complications was low. The mean total inpatient cost (TIC) for all patients with CRC was 78,309.824 Chinese Yuan in 2020, which was slightly lower than that in 2019. Conclusions This study found that the centralized management model for CRC care could help patients save the PWT, LOS and costs of hospitalization during the COVID-19 epidemic.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19) is a novel pneumonia caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2). By May 21, 2020, more than 4.96 million people have been infected, resulting in over 300,000 death in the whole world. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing(mNGS) is a technology that plays an important role in the discovery and detection of COVID-19. This article introduces the role and the technical characteristics of mNGS, and makes a technical summary for the use of this technology in the follow-up fight against the global pandemic.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A recent cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan (China) is known to be caused by a novel beta-coronavirus named the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and can be spread through human-to-human transmission. METHODS: Data of 21 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and 84 patients with suspected COVID-19 were analyzed by RT-PCR. The epidemiologic and clinical features as well as clinical outcomes were compared between the confirmed and suspected cases. RESULTS: Altogether 105 patients had been enrolled in this study by February 15, 2020 in north Shanghai, including 21 confirmed cases and 84 suspected cases of COVID-19. The incubation period of these confirmed patients with imported COVID-19 was 17.6 days (IQR 5-34 days) and the median time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 145.64 h (IQR 21-441 h). More than 50% of the confirmed patients were older than 51 (range, 51-60) years. Fifty (59.5%) of the 84 probably patients were younger than 40 years, including 27 (32%) patients younger than 30 years. Most confirmed patients were men (61.9%, 13/21), and less than 50% of them had underlying diseases, including diabetes (9.5%, 2/21), hypertension (19%, 4/21), COPD (23.8%, 5/21), and CD (23.8%, 5/21). In addition, 10 (47.6%) of the 21 confirmed patients were ordinary employees, and 12 (57.2%) of them had recently been to Wuhan or had close contacts with people from Wuhan. Of the 84 suspected patients, 28 (33.3%) were retired employees; 69 (82.1%) had recently been to supermarkets and groceries or had a history of traveling abroad or to other cities of China. The common onset symptoms of the patients in both groups were fever and cough. The symptom of Sputum production was more pronounced in probably patients (40.5%, 34/84) than that in confirmed patients (9.5%, 2/21). More than 50% imported patients (53.3%, 56/105) had one and two affected lobes. Twenty-nine (27.6%) of the 105 imported patients had been discharged, no patient had died, and all the other patients are still in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The overall incubation period in this cohort of imported confirmed COVID-19 patients was longer than that in Wuhan, mostly infecting older men. The disease onset of imported COVID-19 infection was occult, and the clinical symptoms were usually mild, mostly presenting as low fever, fatigue, light cough, and mild dyspnea.