Environmental and Mobility Strategies During Early COVID-19: Insights From an Empirical Study Focusing on Park Visitations in El Paso, TX.

OBJECTIVES: We explored the importance of environmental and mobility strategies during early COVID-19 by age and ethnicity and investigated predictors of park visitations considering the COVID-19 impacts. BACKGROUND: Parks are safe and accessible venues to stay active and reduce social isolation, which is especially important considering COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns. METHODS: We analyzed online survey data from 683 residents (collected July 2020) of El Paso, TX, and objective measures of neighborhood park characteristics. Chi-square tests and mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the environmental/mobility strategies, personal and environmental factors, and park visitations, considering the COVID-19 impacts. RESULTS: The percentage of those who visited (1+ times/week) parks or trails/paths in the neighborhood dropped from 41.7% to 19.5% since the start of COVID-19 (OR = 0.015, p < .001). Before COVID-19, middle-aged and older adults were less likely to visit parks than younger adults, while this difference became insignificant during early COVID-19. Hispanic adults were more likely to visit parks than non-Hispanics both before and during early COVID-19. Positive environmental predictors of park visitations included park availability in the neighborhood, proximity to the closest park, seeing people being physically active in the neighborhood, and neighborhood aesthetics. CONCLUSIONS: Proximately located parks, trails, and paths well integrated into residential communities, and high aesthetic quality of the neighborhood are the potential features of pandemic-resilient communities and should be considered an important national priority to maintain and promote the health and well-being of the population, especially during pandemics like COVID-19.

Clinical characteristics and comorbidities associated with SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection in the University of California Healthcare Systems.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the degree to which clinical comorbidities or combinations of comorbidities are associated with SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A breakthrough infection was defined as a positive test at least 14 days after a full vaccination regimen. Logistic regression was used to calculate aORs, which were adjusted for age, sex, and race information. RESULTS: A total of 110,380 patients from the UC CORDS database were included. After adjustment, stage 5 CKD due to hypertension (aOR: 7.33; 95% CI: 4.86-10.69; p<.001; power=1) displayed higher odds of infection than any other comorbidity. Lung transplantation history (aOR: 4.79; 95% CI: 3.25-6.82; p<.001; power= 1), coronary atherosclerosis (aOR: 2.12; 95% CI: 1.77-2.52; p<.001; power=1), and vitamin D deficiency (aOR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.69-2.06; p<.001; power=1) were significantly correlated to breakthrough infection. Patients with obesity in addition to essential hypertension (aOR: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.51-2.01; p<.001; power=1) and anemia (aOR: 1.80; 95% CI: 1.47-2.19; p<.001; power=1) were at additional risk of breakthrough infection compared to those with essential hypertension and anemia alone. CONCLUSIONS: Further measures should be taken to prevent breakthrough infection for individuals with these conditions, such as acquiring additional doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to boost immunity.

A tissue specific-infection mouse model of SARS-CoV-2.

Animal models play crucial roles in the rapid development of vaccines/drugs for the prevention and therapy of COVID-19, but current models have some deficits when studying the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 on some special tissues or organs. Here, we generated a human ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 NF/F knockin mouse line that constitutively expresses human ACE2 and specifically expresses SARS-CoV-2 N gene induced by Cre-recombinase. By crossing with Cre transgenic lines allowing for lung-specific and constitutive expression, we generated lung-specific (Sftpc-hACE2-NF/F) and constitutive SARS-CoV-2 N (EIIa-hACE2-NF/F) expressing mice. Upon intranasal infection with a SARS-CoV-2 GFP/ΔN strain which can only replicate in SARS-CoV-2 N expressed cells, we demonstrated that both the Sftpc-hACE2-NF/F and EIIa-hACE2-NF/F mice support viral replication. Consistent with our design, viral replication was limited to the lung tissues in Sftpc-hACE2-NF/F mice, while the EIIa-hACE2-NF/F mice developed infections in multiple tissues. Furthermore, our model supports different SARS-CoV-2 variants infection, and it can be successfully used to evaluate the effects of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (Ab1F11) and antiviral drugs (Molnupiravir). Finally, to test the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on male reproduction, we generated Sertoli cell-specific SARS-CoV-2 N expressed mice by crossing with AMH-Cre transgenic line. We found that SARS-CoV-2 GFP/ΔN strain could infect Sertoli cells, led to spermatogenic defects due to the destruction of blood-testis barrier. Overall, combining with different tissue-specific Cre transgenic lines, the human ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 NF/F line enables us to evaluate antivirals in vivo and study the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 on some special tissues or organs.

Perceived COVID-19-related stress drives home gardening intentions and improves human health in Taiwan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added a layer of mental health problems and perceived stress. Home gardening is considered a good method to reduce perceived stress. The current research evidence is insufficient to understand the relationship and influencing factors between the intentions, behaviors, and benefits of home gardening during short-term COVID-19 events. Although the duration from the onset to stabilization of the outbreak lasted for only 1.5 months from May to June 2021 throughout Taiwan, the significant pandemic changes might have affected the perceived stress along with the intentions, behaviors, and benefits of home gardening. This study explored the relationship between pandemic stress and home gardening through online snowball sampling because of the strict social distancing regulations. A total of 1455 non-follow-up and internet questionnaires throughout Taiwan were collected during the wave onset, peak, easing, and stabilization stages. The questionnaire included questions on personal information, perceived pandemic stress, gardening intentions, gardening behaviors, and gardening benefits. This study showed that perceived stress increased from the pandemic onset to its peak, and decreased from the peak to stabilization stages. Home gardening intentions and behaviors also revealed similar trends. Higher pandemic-perceived stress directly increased home-gardening intentions and indirectly promoted home-gardening behaviors and benefits. Our findings indicated that home gardening is a positive element in reducing perceived stress. Lower gardening intentions and behaviors were observed when the high perceived stress was removed. This study suggests that home gardening was a valuable strategy for staying close to nature and obtaining multiple benefits during the peak pandemic period. Providing small-scale gardening activities and spaces is appropriate for obtaining gardening benefits and avoiding space abandonment after the pandemic. Providing seeds, seedlings, tools, knowledge, online home gardening programs, and small residential and food gardens is a valuable strategy for obtaining multiple benefits during the peak of the pandemic.

Impacts of androgen deprivation therapy on the risks and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with prostate cancer.

Studies have investigated the effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) use on the incidence and clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the results have been inconsistent. We searched the PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from inception to March 2022; 13 studies covering 84 003 prostate cancer (PCa) patients with or without ADT met the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. We calculated the pooled risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to explore the association between ADT use and the infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and severity of COVID-19. After synthesizing the evidence, the pooled RR in the SARS-CoV-2 positive group was equal to 1.17, and the SARS-CoV-2 positive risk in PCa patients using ADT was not significantly different from that in those not using ADT (P = 0.544). Moreover, no significant results concerning the beneficial effect of ADT on the rate of intensive care unit admission (RR = 1.04, P = 0.872) or death risk (RR = 1.23, P = 0.53) were found. However, PCa patients with a history of ADT use had a markedly higher COVID-19 hospitalization rate (RR = 1.31, P = 0.015) than those with no history of ADT use. These findings indicate that ADT use by PCa patients is associated with a high risk of hospitalization during infection with SARS-CoV-2. A large number of high quality studies are needed to confirm these results.

Effects of mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 on semen parameters and sex-related hormone levels in men: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has yet to be proven to alter male reproductive function, particularly in the majority of mild/asymptomatic patients. The purpose of this study was to explore whether mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 affects semen quality and sex-related hormone levels. To find suitable comparative studies, a systematic review and meta-analysis was done up to January 22, 2022, by using multiple databases (Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used to identify and choose the studies. Meta-analysis was used to examine the semen parameters and sex-related hormones of mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 patients before and after infection. The effects of semen collection time, fever, and intensity of verification on semen following infection were also investigated. A total of 13 studies (n = 770) were included in the analysis, including three case-control studies, six pre-post studies, and four single-arm studies. A meta-analysis of five pre-post studies showed that after infection with COVID-19, sperm concentration (I2 = 0; P = 0.003), total sperm count (I2 = 46.3%; P = 0.043), progressive motility (I2 = 50.0%; P < 0.001), total sperm motility (I2 = 76.1%; P = 0.047), and normal sperm morphology (I2 = 0; P = 0.001) decreased. Simultaneously, a systematic review of 13 studies found a significant relationship between semen collection time after infection, inflammation severity, and semen parameter values, with fever having only bearing on semen concentration. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in sex-related hormone levels before and after infection in mild/asymptomatic patients. Mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 infection had a significant effect on semen quality in the short term. It is recommended to avoid initiating a pregnancy during this period of time.

Fully feature fusion based neural network for COVID-19 lesion segmentation in CT images.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads around the world, seriously affecting people's health. Computed tomography (CT) images contain rich semantic information as an auxiliary diagnosis method. However, the automatic segmentation of COVID-19 lesions in CT images faces several challenges, including inconsistency in size and shape of the lesion, the high variability of the lesion, and the low contrast of pixel values between the lesion and normal tissue surrounding the lesion. Therefore, this paper proposes a Fully Feature Fusion Based Neural Network for COVID-19 Lesion Segmentation in CT Images (F3-Net). F3-Net uses an encoder-decoder architecture. In F3-Net, the Multiple Scale Module (MSM) can sense features of different scales, and Dense Path Module (DPM) is used to eliminate the semantic gap between features. The Attention Fusion Module (AFM) is the attention module, which can better fuse the multiple features. Furthermore, we proposed an improved loss function L o s s C o v i d - B C E that pays more attention to the lesions based on the prior knowledge of the distribution of COVID-19 lesions in the lungs. Finally, we verified the superior performance of F3-Net on a COVID-19 segmentation dataset, experiments demonstrate that the proposed model can segment COVID-19 lesions more accurately in CT images than benchmarks of state of the art.

Specific pupylation as IDEntity reporter (SPIDER) for the identification of protein-biomolecule interactions.

Protein-biomolecule interactions play pivotal roles in almost all biological processes. For a biomolecule of interest, the identification of the interacting protein(s) is essential. For this need, although many assays are available, highly robust and reliable methods are always desired. By combining a substrate-based proximity labeling activity from the pupylation pathway of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the streptavidin (SA)-biotin system, we developed the Specific Pupylation as IDEntity Reporter (SPIDER) method for identifying protein-biomolecule interactions. Using SPIDER, we validated the interactions between the known binding proteins of protein, DNA, RNA, and small molecule. We successfully applied SPIDER to construct the global protein interactome for m6A and mRNA, identified a variety of uncharacterized m6A binding proteins, and validated SRSF7 as a potential m6A reader. We globally identified the binding proteins for lenalidomide and CobB. Moreover, we identified SARS-CoV-2-specific receptors on the cell membrane. Overall, SPIDER is powerful and highly accessible for the study of protein-biomolecule interactions.

CDetection.v2: One-pot assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Introduction: The ongoing 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, is a global public health threat. Early diagnosis and identification of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants plays a critical role in COVID-19 prevention and control. Currently, the most widely used technique to detect SARS-CoV-2 is quantitative reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), which takes nearly 1 hour and should be performed by experienced personnel to ensure the accuracy of results. Therefore, the development of a nucleic acid detection kit with higher sensitivity, faster detection and greater accuracy is important. Methods: Here, we optimized the system components and reaction conditions of our previous detection approach by using RT-RAA and Cas12b. Results: We developed a Cas12b-assisted one-pot detection platform (CDetection.v2) that allows rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in 30 minutes. This platform was able to detect up to 5,000 copies/ml of SARS-CoV-2 without cross-reactivity with other viruses. Moreover, the sensitivity of this CRISPR system was comparable to that of RT-qPCR when tested on 120 clinical samples. Discussion: The CDetection.v2 provides a novel one-pot detection approach based on the integration of RT-RAA and CRISPR/Cas12b for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and screening of large-scale clinical samples, offering a more efficient strategy for detecting various types of viruses.

Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal co-morbidities in COVID-19 patients: A systematic-review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has infected over 35 million people worldwide and led to over 1 million deaths. Several risk factors that increase COVID-19 severity have emerged, including age and a history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, or kidney disease. However, a number of outstanding questions persist, including whether the above comorbidities correlate with increased mortality from COVID-19 or whether age is a significant confounding variable that accounts for the observed relationship between COVID-19 severity and other comorbidities. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies documenting COVID-19 patients with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, or chronic kidney disease. We classified COVID-19 cases into severe/non-severe or deceased/surviving and calculated the odds ratio (OR) for each of the four comorbidities in these cohorts. 36 studies, comprising 22,573 patients, are included in our meta-analysis. We found that hypertension is the most prevalent comorbidity in deceased COVID-19 patients (55.4%; CI: 49.4-61.3%), followed by cardiovascular disease (30.7%; CI: 22.6-38.8%), cerebrovascular disease (13.4%; CI: 9.12-19.2%), then chronic kidney disease (9.05%; CI: 5.57-15.0%). The risk of death is also significantly higher for patients with these comorbidities, with the greatest risk factor being chronic kidney disease (OR: 8.86; CI: 5.27-14.89), followed by cardiovascular disease (OR: 6.87; CI: 5.56-8.50), hypertension (OR: 4.87; CI: 4.19-5.66), and cerebrovascular disease (OR: 4.28; CI: 2.86-6.41). These risks are significantly higher than previously reported, while correlations between comorbidities and COVID-19 severity are similar to previously reported figures. Using meta-regression analysis with age as a moderating variable, we observed that age contributes to the observed risks but does not explain them fully. CONCLUSIONS: In this meta-analysis, we observed that cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and kidney-related comorbidities in COVID-19 significantly contributes to greater risk of mortality and increased disease severity. We also demonstrated that age may not be a confounder to these associations.

Service Workers' Experience and Perceptions of Workplace Protective Measures During the Onset of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: The Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a unique burden specifically for workers in service industries. However, limited research on service worker's experience during the onset of COVID-19 exists. We aimed to describe the experiences and concerns of service industry workers during the pandemic's onset. METHODS: This is a mixed-method study. Participants were recruited through social media and completed either a survey or a phone interview during May and June 2020. The survey and transcribed interview data were analyzed using the SPSS software and content analysis, respectively. RESULTS: Twenty-seven individuals completed audio-recorded phone interviews and 28 completed the survey. Participants were mostly women between 19 and 65 years old. Participants worked in food retail (n = 23), restaurant (n = 25), and hospitality (n = 7) industries. There was discordance in perceived threat level of COVID-19. Most participants reported that their workplace complied with their state's mandates for protection measures, while others reported lacking basic supplies such as soap, hand sanitizer, and masks. Job insecurity, change of job tasks, and work hours were the most common ways that COVID-19 affected the workers. Worker's assertiveness to self-protect while at work was influenced by their perceived severity of the pandemic. CONCLUSION/APPLICATION TO PRACTICE: This study highlights the vulnerability of service workers relating to job security and job tasks during the pandemic. Organizational processes are needed to promote safe work environments and facilitate access to resources for these workers. In addition, occupational health practitioners need to be aware of and address the emerging health risks and worker needs.

Immunotherapy in atopic dermatitis.

In the past decade, the emergence of biologics targeting human cytokine networks has advanced a new era in atopic dermatitis therapy. Dupilumab, in particular, the most widely studied and used IL-4/IL-13 inhibitor, has been considered a milestone in the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. In addition to the IL-4 and IL-13 pathways, many other cytokines and receptors have been newly targeted as therapeutic options. In this review, the authors provide an overview of the approved and tested biologics and JAK inhibitors for the treatment of atopic dermatitis, including their advantages and limitations.

Diagnostic accuracy of autoverification and guidance system for COVID-19 RT-PCR results.

Background: To date, most countries worldwide have declared that the pandemic of COVID-19 is over, while the WHO has not officially ended the COVID-19 pandemic, and China still insists on the personalized dynamic COVID-free policy. Large-scale nucleic acid testing in Chinese communities and the manual interpretation for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection results pose a huge challenge for labour, quality and turnaround time (TAT) requirements. To solve this specific issue while increase the efficiency and accuracy of interpretation, we created an autoverification and guidance system (AGS) that can automatically interpret and report the COVID-19 reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results relaying on computer-based autoverification procedure and then validated its performance in real-world environments. This would be conductive to transmission risk prediction, COVID-19 prevention and control and timely medical treatment for positive patients in the context of the predictive, preventive and personalized medicine (PPPM). Methods: A diagnostic accuracy test was conducted with 380,693 participants from two COVID-19 test sites in China, the Hong Kong Hybribio Medical Laboratory (n = 266,035) and the mobile medical shelter at a Shanghai airport (n = 114,658). These participants underwent SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR from March 28 to April 10, 2022. All RT-PCR results were interpreted by laboratorians and by using AGS simultaneously. Considering the manual interpretation as gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy were applied to evaluate the diagnostic value of the AGS on the interpretation of RT-PCR results. Results: Among the 266,035 samples in Hong Kong, there were 16,356 (6.15%) positive, 231,073 (86.86%) negative, 18,606 (6.99%) indefinite, 231,073 (86.86%, negative) no retest required and 34,962 (13.14%, positive and indefinite) retest required; the 114,658 samples in Shanghai consisted of 76 (0.07%) positive, 109,956 (95.90%) negative, 4626 (4.03%) indefinite, 109,956 (95.90%, negative) no retest required and 4702 (4.10%, positive and indefinite) retest required. Compared to the fashioned manual interpretation, the AGS is a procedure of high accuracy [99.96% (95%CI, 99.95-99.97%) in Hong Kong and 100% (95%CI, 100-100%) in Shanghai] with perfect sensitivity [99.98% (95%CI, 99.97-99.98%) in Hong Kong and 100% (95%CI, 100-100%) in Shanghai], specificity [99.87% (95%CI, 99.82-99.90%) in Hong Kong and 100% (95%CI, 99.92-100%) in Shanghai], PPV [99.98% (95%CI, 99.97-99.99%) in Hong Kong and 100% (95%CI, 99.99-100%) in Shanghai] and NPV [99.85% (95%CI, 99.80-99.88%) in Hong Kong and 100% (95%CI, 99.90-100%) in Shanghai]. The need for manual interpretation of total samples was dramatically reduced from 100% to 13.1% and the interpretation time fell from 53 h to 26 min in Hong Kong; while the manual interpretation of total samples was decreased from 100% to 4.1% and the interpretation time dropped from 20 h to 16 min at Shanghai. Conclusions: The AGS is a procedure of high accuracy and significantly relieves both labour and time from the challenge of large-scale screening of SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR. It should be recommended as a powerful screening, diagnostic and predictive system for SARS-CoV-2 to contribute timely the ending of the COVID-19 pandemic following the concept of PPPM.

COVID-19 convalescent plasma boosts early antibody titer and does not influence the adaptive immune response.

Multiple randomized, controlled clinical trials have yielded discordant results regarding the efficacy of convalescent plasma in outpatients, with some showing an approximately 2-fold reduction in risk and others showing no effect. We quantified binding and neutralizing antibody levels in 492 of the 511 participants from the Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Outpatients (C3PO) of a single unit of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) versus saline infusion. In a subset of 70 participants, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained to define the evolution of B and T cell responses through day 30. Binding and neutralizing antibody responses were approximately 2-fold higher 1 hour after infusion in recipients of CCP compared with saline plus multivitamin, but levels achieved by the native immune system by day 15 were almost 10-fold higher than those seen immediately after CCP administration. Infusion of CCP did not block generation of the host antibody response or skew B or T cell phenotype or maturation. Activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were associated with more severe disease outcome. These data show that CCP leads to a measurable boost in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies but that the boost is modest and may not be sufficient to alter disease course.

Consumer Visual and Affective Bias for Soothing Dolls.

Soothing dolls are becoming increasingly popular in a society with a lot of physical and mental stress. Many products are also combined with soothing dolls to stimulate consumers' desire for impulse buying. However, there is no research on the relationship between consumers' purchasing behavior, consumers' preference for soothing dolls, and visual preference. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible factors that affect the emotional and visual preferences of soothing dolls. Two local stores' sales lists were used to extract three different types of dolls. The 2D and 3D versions of these three dolls were used. Subjective emotional preferences were examined by the self-assessment manikin (SAM) scale, with 5-point Likert scales for valence and arousal factors. An eye tracker was used to examine visual preferences, both before and after positive/negative emotion stimulation by the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). There were 37 subjects involved, with an age range of 20-28 years. The experimental results show that the average valence/arousal scores for 2D/3D dolls were (3.80, 3.74) and (2.65, 2.68), respectively. There was no statistical difference, but both 2D and 3D pictures had high valence scores. Eye tracker analysis revealed no gaze difference in visual preference between 2D and 3D dolls. After negative emotional picture stimulation, the observation time of the left-side doll decreased from 2.307 (std 0.905) to 1.947 (std 1.038) seconds, p < 0.001; and that of the right-side picture increased from 1.898 (std 0.907) to 2.252 (std 1.046) seconds, p < 0.001. The average observation time ratio of the eye on the 3D doll was 40.6%, higher than that on the 2D doll (34.3%, p = 0.02). Soothing dolls may be beneficial for emotion relaxation. Soothing dolls always have high valence features according to the SAM evaluation's measurement. Moreover, this study proposes a novel research model using an eye-tracker and the SAM for the SOR framework.

Clinical Predictors for Abnormal ALT in Patients Infected with COVID-19-A Retrospective Single Centre Study.

OBJECTIVE: Abnormal liver tests have been associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients infected with COVID-19. This retrospective observational study from Singapore aims to elucidate simple clinical predictors of abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in COVID-19 infections. DESIGN: 717 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Singapore, from 23 January-15 April 2020 were screened, of which 163 patients with baseline normal alanine transferase (ALT) and at least two subsequent ALTs performed were included in the final analysis. Information on baseline demographics, clinical characteristics and biochemical laboratory tests were collected. RESULTS: 30.7% of patients developed abnormal ALT. They were more likely to be older (60 vs. 55, p = 0.022) and have comorbidities of hyperlipidaemia and hypertension. The multivariate logistic regression showed that R-factor ≥1 on admission (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.13, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.41-6.95) and hypoxia (aOR 3.54, 95% CI 1.29-9.69) were independent risk factors for developing abnormal ALT. The patients who developed abnormal ALT also ran a more severe course of illness with a greater proportion needing supplementary oxygen (58% vs. 18.6%, p < 0.0005), admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/High Dependency Unit (HDU) (32% vs. 11.5%, p = 0.003) and intubation (20% vs. 2.7%, p < 0.0005). There was no difference in death rate between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Liver injury is associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. R-factor ≥1 on admission and hypoxia are independent simple clinical predictors for developing abnormal ALT in COVID-19.

Knowledge domain and emerging trends in HIV-MTB co-infection from 2017 to 2022: A scientometric analysis based on VOSviewer and CiteSpace.

Co-infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals is one of the leading causes of death. Also, research on HIV and MTB (HIV-MTB) co-infection was found to have a downward trend. In this work, we performed the knowledge domain analysis and visualized the current research progress and emerging trends in HIV-MTB co-infection between 2017 and 2022 by using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The relevant literatures in this article were collected in the Web of Science (WoS) database. VOSviewer and CiteSpace bibliometric software were applied to perform the analysis and visualization of scientific productivity and frontier. Among all the countries, USA was dominant in the field, followed by South Africa, and England. Among all the institutions, the University of Cape Town (South Africa) had more extensive collaborations with other research institutions. The Int J Tuberc Lung Dis was regarded as the foremost productive journal. Survival and mortality analysis, pathogenesis, epidemiological studies, diagnostic methods, prognosis improvement of quality of life, clinical studies and multiple infections (especially co-infection with COVID-19) resulted in the knowledge bases for HIV-MTB co-infection. The clinical research on HIV-MTB co-infection has gradually shifted from randomized controlled trials to open-label trials, while the cognition of HIV-TB has gradually shifted from cytokines to genetic polymorphisms. This scientometric study used quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct a comprehensive review of research on HIV-MTB co-infection published over the past 5 years, providing some useful references to further the study of HIV-MTB co-infection.