The effects of home confinement on pediatric fractures during the COVID 19 outbreak.

OBJECTIVE: To control the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Chinese government encouraged people to stay at home. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of home confinement on the occurrence of fractures among children. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively reviewed children admitted to Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, for traumatic injury from January 24 to March 10, 2020, and the same time period in 2017, 2018 and 2019. At the same time, children with fracture were screened out and the date for the past 4 years was compared in terms of etiology, location of fracture, sex and age to evaluate the effects of home confinement on the epidemiology of pediatric fractures during the COVID-19 outbreak. RESULTS: There were 6066 fractures in5,346 patients in 2017-2019, and 1034 fractures in 862 patients in 2020; the number of patients in all years reached a peak at the age of 2 to 4 years. The patients were slightly younger in 2020 than in 2017-2019 (t = 9.953, 95% CI: 0.846-1.262), and the proportion of boys in 2017-2019 is higher than in 2020 (X2 = 6.944, P = 0.008). Home confinement and traffic restriction resulted in a reduction in traffic accidents-associated fractures among children (X2 = 16.399, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Home confinement lead to the significant reduction in the number of pediatric fractures, especially in male children, but the number of patients under 4 years old was still considerable, and the proportion of younger patients even increased. Therefore, the perspective of children should not be relaxed during home isolation.

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for symptomatic venous thromboembolism in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: A multicenter retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: High incidence of asymptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been observed in severe COVID-19 patients, but the characteristics of symptomatic VTE in general COVID-19 patients have not been described. OBJECTIVES: To comprehensively explore the prevalence and reliable risk prediction for VTE in COVID-19 patients. METHODS/RESULTS: This retrospective study enrolled all COVID-19 patients with a subsequent VTE in 16 centers in China from January 1 to March 31, 2020. A total of 2779 patients were confirmed with COVID-19. In comparison to 23,434 non-COVID-19 medical inpatients, the odds ratios (ORs) for developing symptomatic VTE in severe and non-severe hospitalized COVID-19 patients were 5.94 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.91-10.09) and 2.79 (95% CI 1.43-5.60), respectively. When 104 VTE cases and 208 non-VTE cases were compared, pulmonary embolism cases had a higher rate for in-hospital death (OR 6.74, 95% CI 2.18-20.81). VTE developed at a median of 21 days (interquartile range 13.25-31) since onset. Independent factors for VTE were advancing age, cancer, longer interval from symptom onset to admission, lower fibrinogen and higher D-dimer on admission, and D-dimer increment (DI) ≥1.5-fold; of these, DI ≥1.5-fold had the most significant association (OR 14.18, 95% CI 6.25-32.18, p = 2.23 × 10-10 ). A novel model consisting of three simple coagulation variables (fibrinogen and D-dimer levels on admission, and DI ≥1.5-fold) showed good prediction for symptomatic VTE (area under the curve 0.865, 95% CI 0.822-0.907, sensitivity 0.930, specificity 0.710). CONCLUSIONS: There is an excess risk of VTE in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This novel model can aid early identification of patients who are at high risk for VTE.

Clinical features predicting mortality risk in older patients with COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, the cumulative number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths worldwide has reached 1,013,100 and continues to increase as of writing. Of these deaths, more than 90% are people aged 60 and older. Therefore, there is a need for an easy-to-use clinically predictive tool for predicting mortality risk in older individuals with COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To explore an easy-to-use clinically predictive tool that may be utilized in predicting mortality risk in older patients with COVID-19. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 118 older patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Union Dongxihu Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China from 12 January to 26 February 2020. The main results of epidemiological, demographic, clinical and laboratory tests on admission were collected and compared between dying and discharged patients. RESULTS: No difference in major symptoms was observed between dying and discharged patients. Among the results of laboratory tests, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lactate dehydrogenase, albumin, urea nitrogen and D-dimer (NLAUD) show greater differences and have better regression coefficients (ß) when using hierarchical comparisons in a multivariate logistic regression model. Predictors of mortality based on better regression coefficients (ß) included NLR (OR = 31.2, 95% CI 6.7-144.5, p < .0001), lactate dehydrogenase (OR = 73.4, 95% CI 11.8-456.8, p < .0001), albumin (OR < 0.1, 95% CI <0.1-0.2, p < .0001), urea nitrogen (OR = 12.0, 95% CI 3.0-48.4, p = .0005), and D-dimer (OR = 13.6, 95% CI 3.4-54.9, p = .0003). According to the above indicators, a predictive NLAUD score was calculated on the basis of a multivariate logistic regression model to predict mortality. This model showed a sensitivity of 0.889, specificity of 0.984 and a better predictive ability than CURB-65 (AUROC = 0.955 vs. 0.703, p < .001). Bootstrap validation generated the similar sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSIONS: We designed an easy-to-use clinically predictive tool for early identification and stratified treatment of older patients with severe COVID-19.