Prevalence, clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19 in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients: a single-center experience.

INTRODUCTION: There are limited data on the effects of COVID-19 on peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. This study aimed to describe the impact of COVID-19 on the PD population. METHODS: A monocentric retrospective observational study was conducted on 146 consecutive PD patients followed from January 2020 to March 2022 at the University Hospital of Modena, Italy. RESULTS: Twenty-seven (18.4%) PD patients experienced 29 episodes of SARS-CoV-2 infection, corresponding to an incidence rate of 0.16 episodes/patient-year. Median age of COVID-19 patients was 60.4 (interquartile range [IQR] 50.2-66.5) years. In unvaccinated patients (n. 9), COVID-19 was always symptomatic and manifested with fever (100%) and cough (77.7%). COVID-19 caused hospital admission of three (33.3%) patients and two (22.2%) died of septic shock. COVID-19 was symptomatic in 83.3% of vaccinated subjects (n.18) and manifested with fever (61.1%) and cough (55.6%). Hospital admission occurred in 27.8% of the subjects but all were discharged home. Median SARS-CoV-2 shedding was 32 and 26 days in the unvaccinated and vaccinated groups, respectively. At the end of the follow-up, COVID-19 triggered the shift from PD to HD in two subjects without affecting the residual renal function of the remaining patients. Overall, COVID-19 caused an excess death of 22.2%. COVID-19 vaccination refusal accounted for only 1.6% in this cohort of patients. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 incident rate was 0.16 episodes/patient-year in the PD population. About one-third of the patients were hospitalized for severe infection. Fatal outcome occurred in two (7.4%) unvaccinated patients. A low vaccination refusal rate was observed in this population.

Weekly Rapid Antigen Test Screening for COVID-19 in Patients on Hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND/AIM: COVID-19 is a concerning issue among in-center hemodialysis (HD) patients. To prevent COVID-19 diffusion in our HD facility, weekly rapid nasal antigen test screening was performed for all asymptomatic patients on chronic HD. This study aimed to assess the performance of weekly rapid antigen test in detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection among asymptomatic patients receiving HD. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted in HD patients who underwent rapid antigen test screening from December 2021 to March 2022. The diagnosis of COVID-19 with rapid antigen test was always confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: During the observational period, 1,748 rapid antigen tests were performed in 220 HD patients. Mean age was 68.4±14.6 years. Fifteen (8.5%) patients resulted positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection using rapid antigen tests. The diagnosis was subsequently confirmed in 14 (93.3%) patients by RT-PCR. During the same period, 12 (5.4%) symptomatic patients, regularly screened with weekly rapid antigen test, resulted positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection using RT-PCR. Overall, weekly rapid antigen test screening identified 14 out of 26 (53.8%) COVID-19 cases and showed a positive predictive value of 93%. CONCLUSION: Weekly antigen test screening of asymptomatic patients on chronic HD detected around half of the COVID-19 cases in our population.

COVID-19 pneumonia in a kidney transplant recipient successfully treated with tocilizumab and hydroxychloroquine.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia has been poorly reported in solid organ transplanted patients; prognosis is uncertain and best management unclear. We describe the case of a 61-year-old kidney transplant recipient with several comorbidities who was hospitalized and later received a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia; the infection was successfully managed with the use of hydroxychloroquine and a single administration of tocilizumab, after immunosuppression reduction; the patient did not require mechanical ventilation. During the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, transplant clinicians should be readily informed about new cases of COVID-19 pneumonia in solid organ transplant recipients, with focus on therapeutic strategies employed and their outcome.