Detection of COVID-19 in High Resolution Computed Tomography Using Vision Transformer

In the current pandemic, precise and early diagnose of COVID-19 patient remained a crucial task for control of the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the healthcare sector. Due to the unexpected spike in COVID-19 cases, the majority of countries have experienced scarcity and poor testing rate. Chest X-rays and CT scans have been discussed in the literature as a viable source of testing for COVID-19 disease in patients. However, manually reviewing the CT and x-ray images is time-consuming and prone to error. Taking account into these constraints and the improvements in data science, this research proposed a Vision Transformer-based deep learning pipeline for COVID-19 diagnose from CT-based imaging. Due to the scarcity of large data sets, three open-source datasets of CT scans are pooled to generate 27370 images of covid and non- covid individuals. The proposed vision transformer-based model accurately diagnoses COVID-19 from normal chest CT images with an accuracy of 98 percent. This research would assist the practitioner, radiologist and doctors in early and accurate diagnose of COVID-19. © 2022 IEEE.

Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review

Coronavirus pandemic created havoc on our planet, affecting all aspects of human life. It has resulted in human mortality and morbidity worldwide. It did not spare social and economic fabric of societies. It has resulted in huge psychosocial impact on human race. Various disease containment measures such as quarantine, physical distancing, complete lockdowns imposed by governments across the globe has severely affected mental health of children and adolescents. This paper is aimed at reviewing various articles published regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impact on mental health of children with or without previous mental health problems. Different electronic databases, such as Science Direct, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for articles describing impact on mental health of children and adolescents with/without previous mental health problems due to COVID-19. Search strategies included terms such as: “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “mental health”, “children”, “adolescent”, “behavioural impact”, “depression” and “anxiety.” The majority of children and adolescents experienced deterioration in their mental health as emergency measures were implemented throughout the world. Children diagnosed with preexisting mental health problems or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experienced more negative changes compared with children/ adolescents without pre-existing psychiatric diagnoses. There is increased anxiety, depression, irritability, sleep disorders, lethargy, dissatisfaction and fear of death. There is need to plan and implement strategies to provide easy and early access to mental health services for which various stakeholders should come together.

The therapeutic potential of convalescent plasma therapy on treating critically-ill COVID-19 patients residing in respiratory care units in hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq.

The current COVID-19 pandemic needs unconventional therapies to tackle the resulted high morbidity and mortality. Convalescent plasma is one of the therapeutic approaches that might be of benefit. Forty nine early-stage critically-ill COVID-19 patients residing in Respiratory Care Units (RCU) of three hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, were included: 21 received convalescent plasma while 28, namely control group, did not receive it. Recovery or death, length of stay in hospital, and improvement in the clinical course of the disease were monitored clinically along with laboratory monitoring through SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection via PCR, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM serological monitoring. Patients who received convalescent plasma showed reduced duration of infection in about 4 days and showed less death rate [1/21 versus 8/28 in control group]. In addition, all the patients who were given convalescent plasma showed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM three days after plasma transfusion. Plasma from donors with high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and donors with positive SRAS-CoV-2 IgM showed better therapeutic results than other donors. Convalescent plasma therapy is an effective therapy if donors with high level of SARS-Cov2 antibodies are selected and if recipients are at their early stage of critical illness, being no more than three days in RCUs.

The therapeutic effectiveness of Convalescent plasma therapy on treating COVID-19 patients residing in respiratory care units in hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq (preprint)

Objectives: The current COVID-19 pandemic needs unconventional therapies to tackle the resulted high morbidity and mortality. Convalescent plasma is one of the therapeutic approaches that might be of benefit. Methods: Forty nine early-stage severe and critically-ill COVID-19 patients residing in RCU of three hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq were included, 21 received convalescent plasma while 28 did not receive, namely control group. Recovery or death, length of stay in hospital, and improvement in the clinical course of the disease were monitored clinically along with laboratory monitoring through SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection via PCR, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM serological monitoring. Results: Patients received convalescent plasma showed reduced duration of infection in about 4 days, and showed less death rate, 1/21 versus 8/28 in control group. In, addition, all of the patients received convalescent plasma showed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM 3 days after plasma transfusion. Plasma from donors with high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and donors with positive SRAS-CoV-2 IgM showed better therapeutic results than other donors. Conclusions: Convalescent plasma therapy is an effective mode of therapy if donors with high level of SARS-Cov2 antibodies are selected and if recipients were at their early stage of critical illness, being no more than 3 days in RCU.