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1.
preprints.org; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-PREPRINTS.ORG | ID: ppzbmed-10.20944.preprints202403.1213.v1

ABSTRACT

Background: The monocyte-phagocyte system (MPS), including monocytes/macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs), plays a key role in anti-viral immunity. We aimed to analyze the prognostic value of the MPS components on in-hospital mortality in a cohort of 58 patients (M/F ; mean ageSD years) with COVID-19 pneumonia and 22 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Methods: We measured frequencies and absolute numbers of peripheral blood CD169+ monocytes, conventional CD1c+ and CD141+ (namely cDC2 and cDC1), and plasmacytoid CD303+ DCs by means of multi-parametric flow cytometry. A gene profile analysis of 770 immune-inflammatory related human genes and 20 SARS-CoV-2 genes was also performed. Results: Median frequencies and absolute counts of CD169-expressing monocytes were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients than in controls (p 0.04 and p 0.01, respectively). Conversely, percentages and absolute numbers of all DC subsets were markedly depleted in patients (p


Subject(s)
Leukemia, Myeloid , COVID-19 , Pneumonia
2.
ssrn; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-SSRN | ID: ppzbmed-10.2139.ssrn.4757304

Subject(s)
COVID-19
4.
ssrn; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-SSRN | ID: ppzbmed-10.2139.ssrn.4755407

Subject(s)
COVID-19
10.
ssrn; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-SSRN | ID: ppzbmed-10.2139.ssrn.4763033
13.
medrxiv; 2024.
Preprint in English | medRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2024.03.19.24304563

ABSTRACT

Background: Previous viral outbreaks have highlighted implications for the management of complex health conditions. This study delves into the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on stroke care, by examining evidence of shifts in healthcare utilization, the enduring effects on post-stroke recovery, and the overall quality of life experienced by stroke survivors. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology for Scoping Reviews. The search strategy encompassed electronic databases (APA PsycInfo, Embase, Medline, and CINAHL). English language articles published between December 2019 and January 2022 were included, focusing on individuals who experienced a stroke during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data extraction involved identifying study characteristics and significant findings, facilitating a qualitative and narrative synthesis of the gathered evidence. Results: Seven domain summaries were identified. They all described the aspects of systemic transformations in stroke care during the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) patient behavior and awareness; (2) telemedicine and remote care; (3) delays in treatment; (4) impact on healthcare resources; (5) quality of care; (6) changes in stroke severity; and (7) reduction in stroke admissions. Conclusions: This study underscored the critical need to encourage swift patient response to acute stroke symptoms, by finding new avenues for treatment, mitigating hospital-related infection fears, and advocating for the establishment of centralized stroke centers. These measures are integral to optimizing stroke care delivery and ensuring timely interventions, particularly in the challenging context of a pandemic.


Subject(s)
Stroke , COVID-19
14.
medrxiv; 2024.
Preprint in English | medRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2024.03.19.24304557

ABSTRACT

Pandemic-related health service adaptations raised concerns about provision of quality, respectful maternity care globally. Despite this, little research has focused on the experiences of those using intrapartum care during this time. This study aimed to elevate the voices and document the experiences of birthing people in Nampula Province, Mozambique during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a longitudinal qualitative study from March-August 2021 and present an analysis of the 17 follow-up in-depth interviews conducted with participants who had a vaginal live birth. Interviews explored participants experience of labor and delivery care. They were conducted in Makua and Portuguese, audio-recorded, transcribed and translated. We applied thematic content analysis. Overall, participants did not express major concerns about COVID-19 or related service adaptations when describing their experiences of intrapartum care. Some noted its negative effects on elements of respectful care such as restricting birth companions. Overcrowding became more concerning due to the threat of infection. While unclear if affected by the pandemic, all participants who gave birth at a health facility reported experiencing at least one form of mistreatment, some recounting threats of cesarean delivery. Most explained that they and their newborns received care without their consent, especially regarding enemas and episiotomies. At the same time, respondents described a range of intrapartum experiences that included both respectful and disrespectful care. Most recalled positive verbal communication with their providers and many described receiving continuous attentive care. Participants explained that their satisfaction with childbirth services was tied to their birth outcome and their experience of respectful care. The findings indicate that steadfast commitments to quality care are critical to ensure families benefit from high-quality, respectful care at all times. The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic were limited but nonetheless signal a need for tighter connections between maternal health and emergency preparedness stakeholders.


Subject(s)
COVID-19
15.
biorxiv; 2024.
Preprint in English | bioRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2024.03.18.585599

ABSTRACT

Background: In the earliest days of COVID-19 pandemic, the collection of dried blood spots (DBS) enabled public health laboratories to undertake population-scale seroprevalence studies to estimate rates of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. With SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity levels now estimated to exceed 94% in the United States, attention has turned to using DBS to assess functional (neutralizing) antibodies within cohorts of interest. Methods: Contrived DBS eluates from convalescent, fully vaccinated and pre-COVID-19 serum samples were evaluated in SARS-CoV-2 plaque reduction neutralization titer (PRNT) assays, a SARS-CoV-2 specific 8-plex microsphere immunoassay, a cell-based pseudovirus assay, and two different spike-ACE2 inhibition assays. Results: DBS eluates from convalescent individuals were compatible with RBD-ACE2 inhibition assays, an in-house Luminex-based RBD-ACE2 inhibition assay, and commercial real-time PCR-based neutralization assay (NAB-Sure) but not cell-based pseudovirus assays or PRNT. The insensitivity of cell-based pseudovirus assays was overcome with DBS eluates from vaccinated individuals with high SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers. Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing titers can be derived with confidence from DBS eluates, thereby opening the door to the use of these biospecimens for the analysis of vulnerable populations and normally hard to reach communities.


Subject(s)
COVID-19
16.
biorxiv; 2024.
Preprint in English | bioRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2024.03.19.585194

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The demand for molecular diagnosis of pathogens has surged dramatically since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, different diagnostic tests have been developed to identify SARS-CoV-2 in patient samples. The emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 raises questions about whether the molecular tests available for diagnosis continue to be effective in detecting the virus in biological samples. Objective: This study analyzed the viability of molecular targets directed to N, E and RdRp genes available against the new variants of SARS-CoV-2. Methodology: For this, we used bioinformatics tools to analyze SARS-CoV-2 genomic data of different variants deposited in GSAID and NCBI virus genomic databases to assess the accuracy of molecular tests available for the diagnosis of COVID-19. We also developed software for analyzing mutation frequencies in different molecular targets from the mutation database. Results: Mutation frequency analysis revealed a high rate of mutations in the N, E and RdRp genes and targets, although the target regions were more conserved. Only three SNPs were recurrent in the sequences of the variants identified in different continents and all in different targets. On the other hand, the registered mutations are not consistent and do not appear frequently in isolates of the same variant in all regions of the world. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the molecular targets designed for the first SARS-CoV-2 variants remain valid for the identification of new virus variants despite the large number of identified haplotypes. However, false negative test failures can be identified by using more than one molecular target for the same sample. Genomic regions that are under evolutive selective pressure should be avoided in the use of the diagnostic, once the emergence of new variants may affect the efficiency of molecular testing on a global scale.


Subject(s)
Heart Failure , COVID-19
17.
preprints.org; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-PREPRINTS.ORG | ID: ppzbmed-10.20944.preprints202403.1157.v1

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected certain demographics in England, exacerbating existing health disparities. Effective therapeutics are a critical line of defence against COVID-19, particularly for patients at elevated risk for severe disease. Surveillance systems were established to monitor usage of COVID-19 therapeutics in hospital and community settings and inform stewardship. Three antiviral therapies: nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid®), remdesivir (Veklury®), and molnupiravir (Lagevrio®); and two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (nMAbs): sotrovimab (Xevudy®) and casirivimab with imdevimab (Ronapreve®); were in use in England between July 2020 to April 2023. This paper aims to illuminate trends in the utilisation of COVID-19 therapeutics treatment in both hospital and community settings, stratified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in England. Chapter 3 of the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) report 2022 to 2023 also discusses the epidemiological surveillance of these five directly-acting antiviral COVID-19 therapeutics use in England between 2022 to 2023.


Subject(s)
Sleep Deprivation , COVID-19
18.
preprints.org; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-PREPRINTS.ORG | ID: ppzbmed-10.20944.preprints202403.0356.v1

ABSTRACT

Globally, workplace stress and anxiety are at an all-time high, with 42% of employees experiencing daily work-related stress and anxiety. Drawing from workplace anxiety (WA) theory (Cheng & McCarthy, 2018), we advance a model that considers four job demands – role ambiguity, work overload, job insecurity, and work-home conflict – as sources of daily WA, and in turn the downstream effects of WA on psychological capital (PsyCap). Our model posits gender as a moderator of the association between job demands and WA, and digital technology characteristics as moderators of the association between WA and PsyCap. We tested our predictions on a sample of 162 South African employees. Consistent with our predictions, we found positive effects of job demands on WA, with the relationship being stronger for females. Contrary to expectations, we found positive effects of WA on PsyCap, suggesting an adaptive function of WA. Perceived ease of use of digital technology moderated the association between WA and PsyCap, such that the association was strong at higher levels of perceived ease of use. This research advances our understanding of the sources of WA, the adaptive function of WA, and predictors of PsyCap. Broadly, our study adds to understanding emotions’ impact on workplace behavior.


Subject(s)
Anxiety Disorders
19.
arxiv; 2024.
Preprint in English | PREPRINT-ARXIV | ID: ppzbmed-2403.13509v1

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines our submission for the 4th COV19D competition as part of the `Domain adaptation, Explainability, Fairness in AI for Medical Image Analysis' (DEF-AI-MIA) workshop at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR). The competition consists of two challenges. The first is to train a classifier to detect the presence of COVID-19 from over one thousand CT scans from the COV19-CT-DB database. The second challenge is to perform domain adaptation by taking the dataset from Challenge 1 and adding a small number of scans (some annotated and other not) for a different distribution. We preprocessed the CT scans to segment the lungs, and output volumes with the lungs individually and together. We then trained 3D ResNet and Swin Transformer models on these inputs. We annotated the unlabeled CT scans using an ensemble of these models and chose the high-confidence predictions as pseudo-labels for fine-tuning. This resulted in a best cross-validation mean F1 score of 93.39\% for Challenge 1 and a mean F1 score of 92.15 for Challenge 2.


Subject(s)
COVID-19
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