A Case of Thoracic Esophageal Cancer Treated with COVID-19 Pneumonia during Preoperative Chemoradiotherapy(CRT).

INTRODUCTION: There is concerned that prognosis of cancer-bearing patients is adversely affected by postponement of cancer treatment due to infection with a new type of coronavirus(COVID-19). We report a case of thoracic esophageal cancer treated with COVID-19 pneumonia during preoperative CRT. A 60-year-old female diagnosed as having Stage IV thoracic esophageal cancer(cT3N0M1LYM[104R])started receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy. On the 12th day, she had a fever and was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. CRT temporarily interrupted and she was treated for COVID-19 pneumonia preferentially. CRT was resumed promptly after remission. Finally, video-Assisted radical esophagectomy was performed. There were no postoperative complications. Nivolumab was started as an adjuvant therapy on the 2nd postoperative months. CONCLUSION(S): We experienced a case of thoracic esophageal cancer in which COVID-19 pneumonia was treated during preoperative CRT, and CRT and surgery were completed without complications by appropriate treatment.

[A Case of Thoracic Esophageal Cancer Treated with COVID-19 Pneumonia during Preoperative Chemoradiotherapy(CRT)]

INTRODUCTION: There is concerned that prognosis of cancer-bearing patients is adversely affected by postponement of cancer treatment due to infection with a new type of coronavirus(COVID-19). We report a case of thoracic esophageal cancer treated with COVID-19 pneumonia during preoperative CRT. A 60-year-old female diagnosed as having Stage IV thoracic esophageal cancer(cT3N0M1LYM[104R])started receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy. On the 12th day, she had a fever and was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. CRT temporarily interrupted and she was treated for COVID-19 pneumonia preferentially. CRT was resumed promptly after remission. Finally, video-Assisted radical esophagectomy was performed. There were no postoperative complications. Nivolumab was started as an adjuvant therapy on the 2nd postoperative months. CONCLUSIONS: We experienced a case of thoracic esophageal cancer in which COVID-19 pneumonia was treated during preoperative CRT, and CRT and surgery were completed without complications by appropriate treatment.

Effects of Digital Avatar on Perceived Social Presence and Co-presence in Business Meetings Between the Managers and Their Co-workers

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, more people in the workforce, especially in the IT industry, started working from home. This brought a set of issues and challenges for both workers and companies across the globe such as losing touch with other co-workers. This could potentially result in decrease of the performance and innovation. This paper investigates effects of using digital avatar robots in virtual meeting environment, specifically, focusing on the perception of social presence and co-presence between workers and their managers. Our experiment results showed that majority of participants felt an improvement in social presence, co-presence and overall virtual meeting experience while using digital avatar for their meetings, especially to those who has a meeting with less familiar persons or persons from the higher corporate hierarchy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Relationship between recurrence of congenital and immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination: A questionnaire survey in a Japanese cohort

Background: Patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) are theoretically at high risk for thrombosis due to COVID-19, which is attributed to the increase in plasma von Willebrand factor levels and decrease in plasma ADAMTS13 activity with disease severity of COVID-19. So far, one case of a flare of congenital TTP (cTTP) and some cases of de novo immune-mediated TTP (iTTP) have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination worldwide. Aim(s): This study aimed to investigate whether mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines could induce TTP episodes in patients with a history of TTP. Method(s): A questionnaire was administered to Japanese patients with cTTP and iTTP in October 2021 regarding the adverse events they experienced after receiving an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. Only patients aged >=12 years were included in the study. The questionnaire was sent to physicians in-charge of managing patients with TTP. This study was limited to analyzing the risk of TTP recurrence. Result(s): A total of 42 patients with cTTP and 33 patients with iTTP were included in the study. Among the patients with cTTP, 38 were fully vaccinated (Table 1), and four were unvaccinated. No severe adverse effects of vaccination, especially recurrence of cTTP, were observed in all patients. Moreover, the platelet counts of the patients remained unchanged. Those receiving fresh frozen plasma infusion were vaccinated within two weeks of plasma infusion. Out of the 33 patients with iTTP, 26 were fully vaccinated (Table 2), and seven patients were unvaccinated. No recurrence was observed in patients with iTTP. Likewise, the platelet counts of the patients remained unchanged. Conclusion(s): We believe that all patients with cTTP and iTTP should receive COVID-19 vaccination, given its benefits. Careful observation for any adverse events should be after vaccination.

Therapeutic strategy for severe COVID-19 pneumonia from clinical experience

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has resulted in global pandemic. There is currently no effective therapeutic strategy for the management of mechanical ventilation or antiviral drugs for the treatment of this disease. As such, the development of a therapeutic strategy is urgently needed and should be established as soon as possible. In this case series, a therapeutic strategy was initially developed based on previous treatment methods used for the treatment of SARS and MERS in the absence of treatment options for COVID-19 due to a lack of information. During the search for a potential treatment, clinical findings were obtained from patients with severe COVID-19, and one therapeutic strategy was established. This therapeutic strategy was then applied to severe COVID-19 patients. In addition, we can require some interesting clinical features and characteristics of COVID-19 from blood analysis and physical findings. Here, we reported on the clinical features and characteristics of a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of severe COVID-19 pneumonia at our institution.