Risk Factors of Ftal Outcome of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

Background. Few studies reported the risk factors of fatal outcome of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to identify the independent risk factors associated with fatal outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods. The clinical data of 109 consecutive COVID-19 patients including 40 (36.7%) common cases and 69 (63.3%) severe cases were included and analyzed. Results: Multivariate regression analysis indicated that platelets (PLT, OR, 0.988;95% CI, 0.978-0.998;P=0.017) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (OR, 1.047;95% CI, 1.026-1.068;P<0.001) levels were the independent risk factors of fatal outcome in COVID-19 patients. The optimal cut-off value of PLT counts for predicting fatal outcome was 161x109/L with the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.824 (95% CI, 0.739-0.890). The optimal cut-off value of CRP for the prediction of fatal outcome was 46.2 mg/L with the AUROC of 0.954 (95% CI, 0.896-0.985). The CRP levels had higher predictive values for fatal outcome than PLT (P=0.016). The cumulative survival rate was significantly higher in patients with PLT>161x10(9)/L compared with patients with PLT <= 161x10(9)/L (89.4% vs. 12.5%, log-rank test chi(2)=72.17;P<0.001). Survival rate of COVID-19 patients was prominently higher in CRP <= 46.2 mg/L patients compared with patients with CRP>46.2 mg/L (95.9% vs. 22.9%, log-rank test chi(2)=77.85;P<0.001). Conclusions. PLT counts and CRP levels could predict fatal outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with relatively high accuracy.

Acupoint selection rules for acupoint application in lung diseases in the post-epidemic era

Objective: To summarize the rules of acupoint selection of acupoint application to prevent and treat lung diseases under the background the post-epidemic era using data-mining technology. Method: The CNKI, Wanfang database, and VIP database were searched for clinical study articles on lung diseases treated by acupoint application published in the past 5 years. Data-eligible papers were extracted to establish a database of acupoint application for lung disease using Microsoft Excel 2019, with the goal of analyzing the frequency of acupoints, acupoint-meridian association, acupoint-location association, specific acupoint frequency, and cluster analysis. Association rules, consisting of acupoints with an application frequency of ≥ 10, were devised by the Apriori algorithm to explore the correlation between acupoint groups and to analyze the rules of the compatibility of acupoint prescriptions. Results: A total of 229 eligible papers met our inclusion criteria. Forty-seven acupoints were applied, for a total frequency of acupoints of 1,035 times. Among these, acupoints for lung diseases were primarily distributed in the back-and-waist and chest-and-abdomen areas. From the analysis of the association rules, we obtained four groups of acupoint association rules based on acupoint clusters with a frequency ≥ 10 and found that Feishu (BL 13), Tiantu (CV 22), Dazhui (GV 14), Dingchuan (EX-B1), and Danzhong (CV 17) constitute the core acupoints of prescriptions for clinical acupoint application to prevent and treat lung diseases. Conclusion: It is clearly shown that the core acupoints are relatively concentrated and that the selected acupoints were mainly locally selected, which could be a matching reference for the long-term prevention and treatment of lung diseases, including COVID-19.