Mar 18th, 2023 - To evaluate the impact of local therapeutic recommendation updates made by the COVID multidisciplinary consultation meeting (RCP) at the Hôpital Européen Marseille (HEM) through the description of the drug prescriptions for COVID-19 during the first two waves of the epidemic. This retrospective observational study analysed data from the hospital's pharmaceutical file. We included all patients h...

Mar 18th, 2023 - Several cases of vaccine-associated manifestations have been published including cases of inflammatory myositis. Herein, we comprehensively review the literature on the occasion of case of a woman with inflammatory myositis following COVID-19 vaccination. A 67-year-old woman presented with left arm edema, rash, and weakness after the 2nd dose of the BTN162b2 vaccine. Raised muscle enzymes and i...

Feb 23rd, 2023 - To summarize published case reports of patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Brugada pattern electrocardiogram (ECG). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist were followed. A literature search was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus up until September 2021. The incidence, clinical characteristics, and management outcomes ...

Feb 12th, 2023 - We are presenting an overview of the retracted clinical trials about the Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 published in PubMed using the descriptors ((COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (Clinical Trial)). We collected the information for i) the first author's country; ii) the journal name where the study was published; iii) the impact factor of the journal; iv) the main objective of the study; v) methods...

Feb 8th, 2023 - Hypertensive individuals taking anti-hypertensive drugs from renin-angiotensin system inhibitors may exhibit a more severe evolution of the disease when contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19 disease) due to potential increases in ACE2 expression. The study investigated ACE1 and ACE2 axes and hydroxychloroquine in the lungs and adipose tissue of male and female normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WK...

Feb 3rd, 2023 - Patients with SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) have a higher risk of infection due to dysregulated immune system as well as long-term use of immunosuppressants (IS). This could influence the risk of COVID-19 and its outcome. We conducted a longitudinal prospective study across 15 rheumatology centres during the first wave of the pandemic to understand the risk factors contributing to COVID-19...

Jan 23rd, 2023 - How many of you hadn’t heard of ambroxol until the last few weeks? How many of you have gotten at least one call asking for a prescription for it in that time? I’ll raise my hand on both accounts. Dr.

Jan 23rd, 2023 - To determine whether hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 infections among health care workers (HCWs). In a 1: 1 randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group, superiority trial at 34 US clinical centers, 1360 HCWs at risk for COVID-19 infection were enrolled between April and November 2020. Participants were randomized to HCQ or matched placebo. ...

Jan 14th, 2023 - Background: Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drew substantial attention as a potential COVID-19 treatment based on its antiviral and immunomodulatory effects in vitro. However, HCQ showed a lack of efficacy in vivo, and different groups of researchers attributed this failure to the insufficient drug concentration in the lung following oral admi...

Jan 6th, 2023 - Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was initially promoted as an oral therapy for early treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Conventional meta-analyses cannot fully address the heterogeneity of different designs and outcomes of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the efficacy of HCQ in outpatients with mild COVID-19. We conducted a pooled analysis of individual participant data from...

Jan 5th, 2023 - Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is used in the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases and is considered a safe drug. The role of HCQ in the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted some deleterious cardiac effects of HCQ. We aim to evaluate the prevalence and development of cardiac-adverse events in HCQ-treated patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. We performed a cross-sectional study where patien...

Dec 24th, 2022 - To investigate monthly prescription refills for common immunosuppressive/immunomodulatory therapy (sulfasalazine, hydroxychloroquine, azathioprine, methotrexate, leflunomide) prescriptions in England during the complete first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analysis examined unit cost analysis and regional use. A national cohort of community-based, primary care patients who anonymously...

Dec 17th, 2022 - The longer-term effects of therapies for the treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19 are unknown. To determine the effect of multiple interventions for critically ill adults with COVID-19 on longer-term outcomes. Prespecified secondary analysis of an ongoing adaptive platform trial (REMAP-CAP) testing interventions within multiple therapeutic domains in which 4869 critically ill adul...

Dec 14th, 2022 - New Zealand went into lockdown March 2020 successfully eliminating the circulation of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus. During lockdown there were reduced rates of respiratory infections and hospital admission numbers were low. At the time, rumours of benefit and harm of medicines for COVID-19 were widespread in the lay and medical media. To describe changes in inpatient prescribin...

Dec 13th, 2022 - More than 50% of COVID-19 studies first published on the preprint server medRxiv were published in peer-reviewed journals within two years, according to a research letter published recently on JAMA Open Network. In March 2022, European researchers looked at all COVID preprints posted on medRxiv during 2020. Of the 3,343 preprints on COVID posted that year, 1,712 (51.2%) were published in peer-r...

Dec 12th, 2022 - Unselective use of antibiotics to treat children with COVID-19 is one of the major issues during the pandemic in Serbia. Thus far, there has been no evidence about the predictors of multiple antibiotic use in the treatment of children with COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of antibiotic use, as well as to examine demographic and clinical factors associated with a ...

Dec 6th, 2022 - The term "statistical significance," ubiquitous in the medical literature, is often misinterpreted, as is the "p-value" from which it stems. This article explores the implications of results that are numerically positive (e.g., those in the treatment arm do better on average) but not statistically significant. This lack of statistical significance is sometimes interpreted as strong, even decisi...

Dec 5th, 2022 - Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine. As soon as the pandemic started, the search was on for a medication that could stave off infection, or at least the worst consequences of infection. One that would be cheap to make, safe, easy to distribute, and, ideally, was already available. The search had a...

Nov 29th, 2022 - The COVID-19 standard of care (SOC) evolved rapidly during 2020 and 2021, but its cumulative effect over time is unclear. To evaluate whether recovery and mortality improved as SOC evolved, using data from ACTT (Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial). ACTT is a series of phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials that evaluated COVID-19 therapeutics from February 2020 through May ...

Nov 29th, 2022 - The emergence of COVID-19 overwhelmed tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control, resulting in a decrease in TB detection rate and an increase in TB deaths. Furthermore, the temporary immunosuppressive effects, lung inflammation, and the corticosteroids used to treat COVID-19, may play a direct role in immunosuppression, leading to reactivation of either previous infection or latent TB or the dev...