Deep Learning and Medical Imaging for COVID-19 Diagnosis: A Comprehensive Survey (preprint)

COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) has been quickly spreading since its outbreak, impacting financial markets and healthcare systems globally. Countries all around the world have adopted a number of extraordinary steps to restrict the spreading virus, where early COVID-19 diagnosis is essential. Medical images such as X-ray images and Computed Tomography scans are becoming one of the main diagnostic tools to combat COVID-19 with the aid of deep learning-based systems. In this survey, we investigate the main contributions of deep learning applications using medical images in fighting against COVID-19 from the aspects of image classification, lesion localization, and severity quantification, and review different deep learning architectures and some image preprocessing techniques for achieving a preciser diagnosis. We also provide a summary of the X-ray and CT image datasets used in various studies for COVID-19 detection. The key difficulties and potential applications of deep learning in fighting against COVID-19 are finally discussed. This work summarizes the latest methods of deep learning using medical images to diagnose COVID-19, highlighting the challenges and inspiring more studies to keep utilizing the advantages of deep learning to combat COVID-19.

Steroids Therapy in Patients With Severe COVID-19: Association With Decreasing of Pneumonia Fibrotic Tissue Volume

Background We use longitudinal chest CT images to explore the effect of steroids therapy in COVID-19 pneumonia which caused pulmonary lesion progression. Materials and Methods We retrospectively enrolled 78 patients with severe to critical COVID-19 pneumonia, among which 25 patients (32.1%) who received steroid therapy. Patients were further divided into two groups with severe and significant-severe illness based on clinical symptoms. Serial longitudinal chest CT scans were performed for each patient. Lung tissue was segmented into the five lung lobes and mapped into the five pulmonary tissue type categories based on Hounsfield unit value. The volume changes of normal tissue and pneumonia fibrotic tissue in the entire lung and each five lung lobes were the primary outcomes. In addition, this study calculated the changing percentage of tissue volume relative to baseline value to directly demonstrate the disease progress. Results Steroid therapy was associated with the decrease of pneumonia fibrotic tissue (PFT) volume proportion. For example, after four CT cycles of treatment, the volume reduction percentage of PFT in the entire lung was −59.79[±12.4]% for the steroid-treated patients with severe illness, and its p-value was 0.000 compared to that (−27.54[±85.81]%) in non-steroid-treated ones. However, for the patient with a significant-severe illness, PFT reduction in steroid-treated patients was −41.92[±52.26]%, showing a 0.275 p-value compared to −37.18[±76.49]% in non-steroid-treated ones. The PFT evolution analysis in different lung lobes indicated consistent findings as well. Conclusion Steroid therapy showed a positive effect on the COVID-19 recovery, and its effect was related to the disease severity.

The global succinylation of SARS-CoV-2-infected host cells reveals drug targets.

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, undergoes continuous evolution, highlighting an urgent need for development of novel antiviral therapies. Here we show a quantitative mass spectrometry-based succinylproteomics analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Caco-2 cells, revealing dramatic reshape of succinylation on host and viral proteins. SARS-CoV-2 infection promotes succinylation of several key enzymes in the TCA, leading to inhibition of cellular metabolic pathways. We demonstrated that host protein succinylation is regulated by viral nonstructural protein (NSP14) through interaction with sirtuin 5 (SIRT5); overexpressed SIRT5 can effectively inhibit virus replication. We found succinylation inhibitors possess significant antiviral effects. We also found that SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and membrane proteins underwent succinylation modification, which was conserved in SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Collectively, our results uncover a regulatory mechanism of host protein posttranslational modification and cellular pathways mediated by SARS-CoV-2, which may become antiviral drug targets against COVID-19.

Inserting a Drainage Strip into the Pre-tracheal Space to Treat Tension Pneumomediastinum: A Case-control Study (preprint)

Background: A Severe tension pneumomediastinum can result in respiratory and circulatory dysfunction. Common etiologies include severe pneumonia such as COVID-19 pneumonia, asthma, excessive pressure from a ventilator, etc. we describe a method for draining tension pneumomediastinum by inserting a drainage strip into the pre-tracheal space.Methods:Design: Case-control.Setting: Data from a medical institution in southern China.Participants: 30 patients with tension pneumomediastinum and comorbid type II respiratory failure.Interventions: 15 patients (surgery group) were treated with a drainage strip being inserted into the pre-tracheal space while other 15 patients (control group) were treated without drainage.Outcome measures: Arterial blood pO2 and pCO2 after 30 minutes and 12 hours of mechanical ventilation, total duration of mechanical ventilation, and chest radiography results after 12 hours of mechanical ventilation.Results: Chest radiography after 12 hours of mechanical ventilation showed that the pneumomediastinum basically disappeared in the surgery group but did not decrease significantly in the control group. The arterial blood pCO2 after 12 hours of mechanical ventilation and total duration of mechanical ventilation were significantly lower in the surgery group than in the control group (95% CI -3.31 to -1.36, p<0.001; 95% CI -5.56 to -2.84, p<0.001), while the arterial blood pO2 after 12 hours of mechanical ventilation was significantly higher in the surgery group than in the control group (95% CI 1.76 to 7.57, p=0.004). There were no significant intergroup differences in other variables. No recurrence occurred in either group during 7–14 days after discharge, and all patients recovered.Conclusions: Our method for draining tension pneumomediastinum improved respiratory function and shortened mechanical ventilation duration.Trial registration: ChiCTR2000039496Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the FigShare repository, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13487295.

Survey of mental health status of first-line healthcare workers in designated hospitals for COVID-19 in Wuhan

Objective:To investigate mental health status of first-line healthcare workers in designated hospitals for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan.

Analysis of clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Tianjin

Objective: To explore the epidemiological, clinical and imaging characteristics of patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Tianjin.