RESUMO
Immunosuppressed patients have increased risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 because they less frequently mount antibody responses to vaccines and often cannot tolerate small-molecule antivirals. The Omicron variant of concern of SARS-CoV-2 has progressively defeated anti-Spike mAbs authorized so far, paving the way to a return to COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy. In this systematic review we performed a metanalysis of 9 controlled studies (totaling 535 treated patients and 1365 controls and including 4 randomized controlled trials), an individual patient data analysis of 125 case reports/series (totaling 265 patients), and a descriptive analysis of 13 uncontrolled large case series without individual patient data available (totaling 358 patients). The metanalysis of controlled studies showed a risk ratio for mortality of 0.65 (risk difference -0.11) in treatment with CCP versus standard of care for immunosuppressed COVID-19 patients. On the basis of this evidence, we encourage initiation of high-titer CCP from vaccinees( hybrid plasma) in immunocompromised patients.
RESUMO
During pandemics, out-of-hospital treatments reduce the health system burden. Controversies persist regarding the best treatment options for COVID-19 outpatients at risk for hospitalization. We assembled data from 47 randomized controlled trials investigating 51 distinct interventions in more than 60,000 outpatients until October 2022 with the endpoint of hospitalization. These trials, largely performed in unvaccinated cohorts during pre-Omicron waves, mostly targeted populations with at least one risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization. Grouping by class, the COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) (OR=0.69 [95% CI=0.53 to 0.9]), anti-Spike monoclonal antibodies (OR=0.32 [95% CI=0.24-0.42]) and small molecule antivirals (OR=0.57 [95% CI=0.3-1.09]) each had comparable efficacy for hospital relative risk reduction dependent on intervention dose and timing. Repurposed drugs had lower efficacy. The recent Omicron sublineages (XBB and BQ.1.1) in vitro resistance to monoclonal antibodies suggests a pressing need to reevaluate CCP recommendations for COVID-19 outpatients at risk for hospitalization, especially in constrained medical resource settings.
RESUMO
Respiratory tract infection is a common and important problem in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. It has been demonstrated that an appropriate initial regimen or its early modification (within 6-12h from diagnosis) based on microbiological results leads to a higher survival rate. Here we evaluated the Uro4 HB&L automated system for the rapid diagnosis of respiratory tract infections in ICU patients. A total of 644 lower respiratory tract specimens collected from 400 inpatients from nine ICUs at the Padova University hospital were collected during a 12-month period. All samples were processed both with the Uro4 HB&L system and with the reference culture method. Out of 322 samples, 312 were concordant positive, 276 out of 276 were concordant negative, 66 samples were declared uncertain and discarded because of an excess in turbidity. The diagnostic accuracy was good, compared with standard cultures from BAL specimens, in terms of sensitivity (0.972), specificity (1.00), likelihood ratios and diagnostic odds ratio. Ten discordant samples, resulted positive with the reference culture and not detectable with the Uro4 HB&L, were confirmed positive by Gram-stain smear analysis performed after incubation. The Uro4 HB&L system, compared to the standard culture method, revealed a very high sensitivity and a full specificity in identifying clinically relevant microorganisms from lower respiratory tract samples after merely 6h. Overall our results indicate that Uro4 HB&L is a reliable system for the surveillance of the respiratory tract infections in ICUs; it could speed up the laboratory procedures and provide fast, reliable results for clinicians.
