COVID-19 Stroke Apical Lung Examination Study 2: a national prospective CTA biomarker study of the lung apices, in patients presenting with suspected acute stroke (COVID SALES 2).

BACKGROUND: Apical ground-glass opacification (GGO) identified on CT angiography (CTA) performed for suspected acute stroke was developed in 2020 as a coronavirus-disease-2019 (COVID-19) diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in a retrospective study during the first wave of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To prospectively validate whether GGO on CTA performed for suspected acute stroke is a reliable COVID-19 diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and whether it is reliable for COVID-19 vaccinated patients. METHODS: In this prospective, pragmatic, national, multi-center validation study performed at 13 sites, we captured study data consecutively in patients undergoing CTA for suspected acute stroke from January-March 2021. Demographic and clinical features associated with stroke and COVID-19 were incorporated. The primary outcome was the likelihood of reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction swab-test-confirmed COVID-19 using the GGO biomarker. Secondary outcomes investigated were functional status at discharge and survival analyses at 30 and 90 days. Univariate and multivariable statistical analyses were employed. RESULTS: CTAs from 1,111 patients were analyzed, with apical GGO identified in 8.5 % during a period of high COVID-19 prevalence. GGO showed good inter-rater reliability (Fleiss κ = 0.77); and high COVID-19 specificity (93.7 %, 91.8-95.2) and negative predictive value (NPV; 97.8 %, 96.5-98.6). In subgroup analysis of vaccinated patients, GGO remained a good diagnostic biomarker (specificity 93.1 %, 89.8-95.5; NPV 99.7 %, 98.3-100.0). Patients with COVID-19 were more likely to have higher stroke score (NIHSS (mean +/- SD) 6.9 +/- 6.9, COVID-19 negative, 9.7 +/- 9.0, COVID-19 positive; p = 0.01), carotid occlusions (6.2 % negative, 14.9 % positive; p = 0.02), and larger infarcts on presentation CT (ASPECTS 9.4 +/- 1.5, COVID-19 negative, 8.6 +/- 2.4, COVID-19 positive; p = 0.00). After multivariable logistic regression, GGO (odds ratio 15.7, 6.2-40.1), myalgia (8.9, 2.1-38.2) and higher core body temperature (1.9, 1.1-3.2) were independent COVID-19 predictors. GGO was associated with worse functional outcome on discharge and worse survival after univariate analysis. However, after adjustment for factors including stroke severity, GGO was not independently predictive of functional outcome or mortality. CONCLUSION: Apical GGO on CTA performed for patients with suspected acute stroke is a reliable diagnostic biomarker for COVID-19, which in combination with clinical features may be useful in COVID-19 triage.

[Echocardiographic evaluation of ischemic cardiopathy]. / Valoración ecocardiográfica de la cariopatía isquémica

We studied a group of patients with ischemic heart disease divided into two groups: Group I coronary insufficiency. Group II myocardial infaction. We centered the work on the following aspects: analysis of the contractility; evaluation of the movement of the ventricular wall and of the septum; movement of the mitral valve; diagnosis of ventricular dyskinesias, akinesias, and hypokinesias. The patients in group I did not show significant alterations in the values of the ejection fraction and speed of circunferential shortening. The mean values of these parimeters are significantly less than the group of patients with infarcts, and 41% of these patients have EF less than 50% and Vcf less than 0.9. We did not find a correlation between these perimeters and the localization of the infarct. The velocity of the posterior ventricular wall was disminished in both groups of patients. The amplitude of movement of the posterior wall was reduced in the group of patients with infarctions. These parimeters were more altered in the posterior infarcts than in those with anterior localization and they are more an index of the state of the posterior wall than of the ventricular contractility considered overall, contary to mitral descriptions. In 3 cases of acute infarct we found paradoxical movement of the septum, which normalized itself in one patient in 6 months. In 6 other patients with old infarct we observed localized dyskinesias of the septum and of the free wall of the left ventricle. The mitral valve appears altered in a great proportion of coronary patients the most notorious characteristics being: a decrease in the EF pendent; an increase of the F index. These findings are considered in relation with the ventricular pressures and with the degree of distensibility of the left ventricle.