Does admission acetylsalicylic acid uptake in hospitalized COVID-19 patients have a protective role? Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry.

Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is widely used in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disorders. Our objective is to evaluate its possible protective role, not only in mortality but also in other aspects such as inflammation, symptomatic thrombosis, and intensive care unit (ICU) admission in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We realized an observational retrospective cohort study of 20,641 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia collected and followed-up from Mar 1st, 2020 to May 1st, 2021, from the nationwide Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to determine whether treatment with ASA affected outcomes in COVID-19 patients. On hospital admission, 3291 (15.9%) patients were receiving ASA. After PSM, 3291 patients exposed to ASA and 2885 not-exposed patients were analyzed. In-hospital mortality was higher in the ASA group (30.4 vs. 16.9%, p < 0.001) in the global sample. After PSM, no differences were found between groups (30.4 vs. 30.3%, p = 0.938). There were no differences in inflammation, symptomatic thrombosis, or ICU admission. In conclusion, ASA intake is not associated with in-hospital mortality or any other health outcome evaluated after applying PSM analysis in a real-world large sample of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Short-term Neuropsychiatric Outcomes and Quality of Life in COVID-19 Survivors

BackgroundThe general medical impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) are increasingly appreciated. However, its impact on neurocognitive, psychiatric health and quality of life (QoL) in survivors after the acute phase is poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate neurocognitive function, psychiatric symptoms, and QoL in COVID-19 survivors shortly after hospital discharge. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective study of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors followed-up for 2 months after discharge. A battery of standardized instruments evaluating neurocognitive function, psychiatric morbidity, and QoL (mental and physical components) was administered by telephone. FindingsOf the 229 screened patients, 179 were included in the final analysis. Among survivors, the prevalence of moderately impaired immediate verbal memory and learning was 38%, delayed verbal memory (11.8%), verbal fluency (34.6%), and working memory (executive function) (6.1%), respectively. Moreover, 58.7% of patients had neurocognitive impairment in at least one function. Rates of positive screening for anxiety were 29.6%, depression (26.8%), and post-traumatic stress disorder (25.1%) respectively. In addition, 39.1% of the patients had psychiatric morbidity. Low QoL for physical and mental components was detected in 44.1% and 39.1% of patients, respectively. Delirium and stress-related symptoms increased approximately 4-fold the odds of developing neurocognitive impairment. Female gender and neurocognitive impairment diagnosis were related with an increase of 2.5 and 4.56- fold odds respectively of psychiatric morbidity. InterpretationHospitalized COVID-19 survivors showed a high prevalence of neurocognitive impairment, psychiatric morbidity, and poor QoL in the short-term. It is uncertain if these impacts persist over the long-term.