Rare Fundus Lesions in Patients after SARS-Cov-2 Infection: A Multicenter and Multimodal Imaging Study (preprint)

Purpose To define the characteristics of fundus manifestations in patients after SARS-Cov-2 infection with multimodal imaging techniques.Methods This is a retrospective multicenter and multimodal imaging study including 90 patients. All patients with a visual complaint occurring immediately after SARS-Cov-2 infection were referred to six clinics between December 2022 and February 2023. Demographic information and the temporal relationship between SARS-Cov-2 infection and visual symptoms were documented. The characteristics of the fundus lesions were evaluated using multimodal imaging.Results Ninety patients from six hospitals were enrolled in this study, including 24 males (26.67%) and 66 (73.33%) females. Seventy-eight patients (86.66%) (146 eyes) were diagnosed with AMN. The AMN patients were primarily young women (67.95%). Sixty-eight patients (87.18%) had AMN in both eyes. Thirty-eight eyes (24.36%) included Purtscher or Purtscher-like lesions. optical coherence tomography and infrared retinal photographs can show AMN lesions well. Eleven cases were diagnosed with simple Purtscher or Purtscher-like retinopathy (2 cases, 2.22%), VKH or VKH-like uveitis (3 cases, 3.33%), MEWDS (2 cases, 2.22%), and ROCM (5 cases, 5.56%).Conclusions After SARS-Cov-2 infection, diversified fundus lesions were evident in patients with visual complaints. In this report, AMN was the dominant manifestation, followed by Purtscher or Purtscher-like retinopathy, MEWDS, VKH-like uveitis, and ROCM.

Potentially Effective Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19 or MIS-C in Children: A Systematic Review (preprint)

Introduction: The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of using potential drugs: remdesivir and glucocorticoid in treating children and adolescents with COVID-19 and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in treating MIS-C. Methods: : We searched seven databases, three preprint platform, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google from December 1, 2019, to August 5, 2021, to collect evidence of remdesivir, glucocorticoid, and IVIG which were used in children and adolescents with COVID-19 or MIS-C. Results: : A total of nine cohort studies and one case series study were included in this systematic review. In terms of remdesivir, the meta-analysis of single-arm cohort studies have shown that, after the treatment, 54.7% (95%CI, 10.3% to 99.1%) experienced adverse events, 5.6% (95%CI, 1.2% to 10.1%) died, 27.0% (95%CI, 0% to 73.0%) needed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or invasive mechanical ventilation. As for glucocorticoids, the results of the meta-analysis showed that the fixed-effect summary odds ratio for the association with mortality was 2.79 (95%CI, 0.13 to 60.87), and the mechanical ventilation rate was 3.12 (95%CI, 0.80 to 12.08) for glucocorticoids compared with the control group. In terms of IVIG, most of the included cohort studies showed that for MIS-C patients with more severe clinical symptoms, IVIG combined with methylprednisolone could achieve better clinical efficacy than IVIG alone. Conclusions: : Overall, the current evidence in the included studies is insignificant and of low quality. It is recommended to conduct high-quality randomized controlled trials of remdesivir, glucocorticoids, and IVIG in children and adolescents with COVID-19 or MIS-C to provide substantial evidence for the development of guidelines.

Associations Between the Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Adverse Outcomes Among Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (preprint)

Background: There are concerns that the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may increase the risk of adverse outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, this study aimed to synthesize the existing evidence on associations between the use of NSAIDs and adverse outcomes among patients with COVID-19.Methods: Systematic search of WHO COVID-19 Database, Medline, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, China Biology Medicine disc, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database for all articles published from January 1, 2020, to August 10, 2021, as well as a supplementary search of Google Scholar. We included comparative observational studies and randomized controlled trials that enrolled patients with COVID-19 who took NSAIDs before or after diagnosis of COVID-19. Data extraction and quality assessment of methodology of included studies were completed by two reviewers independently. We conducted a meta-anlysis on the main outcomes, as well as selected subgroup analyses stratified by the type of NSAID.Fingings: Fifteen non-randomized studies evaluating 24700 adult COVID-19 patients were identified. The use of NSAIDs in patients with COVID-19, compared with no use of NSAIDs, was not significantly associated with an elevated mortality (odds ratio [OR]=0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87 to 1.02), or an increased probability of ICU admission (OR=1.35, 95% CI: 0.73 to 2.49), requiring mechanical ventilation (OR=1.23, 95% CI: 0.71 to 2.13), or administration of supplemental oxygen (OR=0.99, 95% CI: 0.91 to 1.08). The subgroup analyses revealed that the use of ibuprofen (OR=1.22, 95% CI: 0.32 to 4.60), etoricoxib (OR=0.36, 95% CI: 0.02 to 6.49) or celecoxib (zero deaths in both groups) were not associated with an increased risk of death in COVID-19 patients, compared with not using any NSAID.Interpretation: Fever is one of the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19. According to our findings, NSAIDs such as ibuprofen can be used to treat fever in COVID-19 patients safely.Funding: None to declare. Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Potentially effective drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 in children: a systematic review (preprint)

Background: The efficacy and safety of using potential drugs such as remdesivir, glucocorticoid, and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in treating children and adolescents with COVID-19 is unclear. Methods: We searched seven databases, three preprint platform, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google from December 1, 2019, to March 2, 2021, to collect evidence of remdesivir, glucocorticoid, and IVIG which were used in children and adolescents with COVID-19. Findings: A total of six cohort studies and one case series study were included in this systematic review. In terms of remdesivir, the meta-analysis of single-arm cohort studies have shown that, after the treatment, 37.1% (95%CI, 0.0% to 74.5%) experienced adverse events, 5.9% (95%CI, 1.5% to 10.2%) died, 37.2% (95%CI, 0% to 76.0%) needed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). As for glucocorticoids, the results of the meta-analysis showed that the fixed-effect summary odds ratio (OR) for the association with mortality was 2.79 (95%CI, 0.13 to 60.87), and the mechanical ventilation rate was 3.12 (95%CI, 0.80 to 12.08) for glucocorticoids compared with the control group. In terms of IVIG, the two included cohort studies showed that for MIS-C patients with more severe clinical symptoms, IVIG combined with methylprednisolone could achieve better clinical efficacy than IVIG alone. Interpretation: Overall, the current evidence in the included studies is insignificant and of low quality, which does not adequately demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of using remdesivir, glucocorticoids, and IVIG in treating children and adolescents with COVID-19 or MIS-C.