ABSTRACT
Purpose of Study The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a major challenge to the global medical community resulting in many necessary changes in worldwide research publication trends. As focus and funding of research have shifted throughout the pandemic, so too have publication types, topics, and country-wide research output. While changes during the pandemic have undoubtedly had an impact on publications, these impacts and their implication for long-term research have been poorly characterized. We aim to illustrate these shifting changes in publications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Used Publications were accessed using PubMed Advanced Search Criteria. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was set as the date of the first reported case in Wuhan on 12/31/2019. Searches were conducted on 9/10/ 2021. We generated searches based on type of publication, country affiliation of the first author, date ranges, and specific topics such as 'COPD' or 'Diabetes'. We analyzed the changes in publications during the 4 months before the first case of COVID-19 and every 4 months thereafter. Results were analyzed using SPSS. Summary of Results In the two years before the pandemic, 3541.9 PubMed-indexed articles were published per day, while 4379.9 such articles have been published each day during the pandemic. Covid-19 resulted in net increases relative to baseline in case reports, reviews, and retracted publications with net decreases in clinical trials, multicenter studies, and randomized control trials in most yearly tertiles relative to the 4 months before Covid-19. Meta-analysis and observational studies demonstrated initial net increases followed by subsequent net decreases. The largest percent decrease in publication type relative to baseline has been seen in Phase I (- 82.6%) and Phase IV (-80.5%) clinical trials. In the first yearly tertile, China had the largest percent increase in publications relative to baseline (38.4%) followed by Italy in the second tertile (32.0%) and India in the third tertile (43.5%). Increases in daily publications were seen in many research topics including diabetes (32.8/day), asthma (4.6/day), heart disease (2.9/day), and COPD (2.4/day). Conclusions COVID-19 has caused a shift in research focus and funds towards pandemic-related research. This has emphasized lower evidence research, such as case reports, and shifted focus away from high evidence studies, such as clinical trials and meta-analysis. Production of high-evidence studies does not appear to be recovering as the pandemic continues. Research output of individual countries appears to coincide with COVID-19 related infection surges in each respective country. Despite new emphasis on Covid-related research, many important topics such as diabetes and heart disease have experienced increases in publications.
ABSTRACT
Case Report A Rare Presentation of Multivessel Vasospastic Angina in the Setting of Septic Shock Background Prinzmetal or vasospastic angina is an unusual but important consideration when evaluating a patient with chest pain. Unlikely acute coronary syndromes (ACS) which primarily occur as a result of coronary artery occlusion, prinzmetal angina occurs angina occurs mainly as a result of coronary artery vasospasm. We present the unusual case of a patient who suffered cardiac arrest and was found to have >90% occlusion in multiple coronary arteries on a left heart catheterization (LHC) performed within 60 minutes. Case presentation Patient is a 70-year-old female who was initially being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. She spent a few days in the ICU due to requiring high flow nasal cannula but was transferred to the floor after she was weaned down to 3L/min via regular nasal cannula. On day of arrest, patient had increasing oxygen requirements and was on ventimask immediately prior to the code blue. Patient received 2 rounds of CPR and her initial rhythm was found to be ventricular fibrillation. Pt was defibrillated and ROSC was immediately achieved. EKG showed ST elevations in inferior leads. Patient was, however, alert and oriented x3 on initial evaluation by critical care team. She was not intubated after the arrest. She was transferred to the intensive care unit, given 300 mg intravenous amiodarone and therapeutic dose lovenox. On LHC, her left anterior descending artery (mid/ distal portion), distal diagonal vessel, left circumflex artery (mid portion), distal portion of the obtuse marginal and right coronary artery were found to be severely spasmodic. Patient had recurrence of angina after the catheterization which was transiently relieved with nitro. Patient had sustained relief of angina after starting nitro drip. Patient was also started on amiodarone drip upon transfer back to the ICU. Discussion The obvious side-effect of our therapeutic treatment was hypotension that was initially responsive to intravenous fluids. Patient, however, became hypoxic a few hours later and needed to be diuresed to return to baseline oxygen requirement. Patient was then started on norepinephrine drip with goal to maintain mean arterial pressure above 65. After patient was loaded with amiodarone, nitro drip was discontinued. She was then transitioned to oral amiodarone. She was started on isosorbide dinitrate prior discontinuing nitro drip. Patient's blood pressure stabilized as her per oral intake improved and norepinephrine drip soon thereafter. Novel presentations require novel treatment and creative thinking lead to the decision to continue nitro drip to keep her stable, even if it meant the simultaneous use of an anti-hypertensive and a pressor. It is possible that COVID-19 served as a trigger for such a global vasospasm event. Patient was restarted on her home medication of long-acting nitrates which were held on admission due to hypotension.