Dexamethasone in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19: Whether, When and to Whom.

A clinical interpretation of the Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) study was performed to provide a useful tool to understand whether, when, and to whom dexamethasone should be administered during hospitalization for COVID-19. A post hoc analysis of data published in the preliminary report of the RECOVERY study was performed to calculate the person-based number needed to treat (NNT) and number needed to harm (NNH) of 6 mg dexamethasone once daily for up to 10 days vs. usual care with respect to mortality. At day 28, the NNT of dexamethasone vs. usual care was 36.0 (95%CI 24.9-65.1, p < 0.05) in all patients, 8.3 (95%CI 6.0-13.1, p < 0.05) in patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, and 34.6 (95%CI 22.1-79.0, p < 0.05) in patients receiving oxygen only (with or without noninvasive ventilation). Dexamethasone increased mortality compared with usual care in patients not requiring oxygen supplementation, leading to a NNH value of 26.7 (95%CI 18.1-50.9, p < 0.05). NNT of dexamethasone vs. usual care was 17.3 (95%CI 14.9-20.6) in subjects <70 years, 27.0 (95%CI 18.5-49.8) in men, and 16.2 (95%CI 13.2-20.8) in patients in which the onset of symptoms was >7 days. Dexamethasone is effective in male subjects < 70 years that require invasive mechanical ventilation experiencing symptoms from >7 days and those patients receiving oxygen without invasive mechanical ventilation; it should be avoided in patients not requiring respiratory support.

Laboratory Assay Evaluation Demystified: A Review of Key Factors Influencing Interpretation of Test Results Using Different Assays for SARS-CoV-2 Infection Diagnosis.

Laboratory tests are an integral part of the diagnosis and management of patients; however, these tests are far from perfect. Their imperfections can be due to patient health condition, specimen collection, and/or technological difficulty with performing the assay and/or interpretation. To be useful clinically, testing requires calculation of positive predictive values (PPVs) and negative predictive values (NPVs). During the current global pandemic of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), multiple assays with unknown clinical sensitivity and specificity have been rapidly developed to aid in the diagnosis of the disease. Due to a lack of surveillance testing, the prevalence of COVID-19 remains unknown. Hence, using this situation as an clinical example, the goal of this article is to clarify the key factors that influence the PPV and NPV yielded by diagnostic testing, By doing so, we hope to offer health-care providers information that will help them better understand the potential implications of utilizing these test results in clinical patient management.