Sars-Cov-2 infection related inflammatory and demyelinating disease; a brief case series

When to test for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to evaluate the time in days between symptom onset and first positive real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) result for COVID-19.

METHODS

This systematic review was conducted in the MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, and Scopus databases using the following descriptors: "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "coronavirus", "RT-PCR", "real time PCR", and "diagnosis".

RESULTS

The included studies were conducted in 31 different countries and reported on a total of 6831 patients. The median age of the participants was 49.95 years. The three most common symptoms were fever, cough, and dyspnea, which affected 4012 (58.68%), 3192 (46.69%), and 2009 patients (29.38%), respectively. Among the 90 included studies, 13 were prospective cohorts, 15 were retrospective cohorts, 36 were case reports, 20 were case series, and six were cross-sectional studies. The overall mean time between symptom onset and positive test result was 6.72 days. Fourteen articles were analyzed separately for the temporal profile of RT-PCR test results; the best performance was on days 22-24, when 98% of test results were positive.

CONCLUSION

These findings corroborate the RT-PCR COVID-19 testing practices of some health units. In addition, the most frequently described symptoms of these patients can be considered the initial symptoms of infection and used in decision-making about RT-PCR testing.

Encephalopathy at admission predicts adverse outcomes in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Aims

To determine if neurologic symptoms at admission can predict adverse outcomes in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2).

Methods

Electronic medical records of 1053 consecutively hospitalized patients with laboratory‐confirmed infection of SARS‐CoV‐2 from one large medical center in the USA were retrospectively analyzed. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed with the calculation of areas under the curve (AUC) and concordance index (C‐index). Patients were stratified into subgroups based on the presence of encephalopathy and its severity using survival statistics. In sensitivity analyses, patients with mild/moderate and severe encephalopathy (defined as coma) were separately considered.

Results

Of 1053 patients (mean age 52.4 years, 48.0% men [n = 505]), 35.1% (n = 370) had neurologic manifestations at admission, including 10.3% (n = 108) with encephalopathy. Encephalopathy was an independent predictor for death (hazard ratio [HR] 2.617, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.481–4.625) in multivariable Cox regression. The addition of encephalopathy to multivariable models comprising other predictors for adverse outcomes increased AUCs (mortality: 0.84–0.86, ventilation/ intensive care unit [ICU]: 0.76–0.78) and C‐index (mortality: 0.78 to 0.81, ventilation/ICU: 0.85–0.86). In sensitivity analyses, risk stratification survival curves for mortality and ventilation/ICU based on severe encephalopathy (n = 15) versus mild/moderate encephalopathy (n = 93) versus no encephalopathy (n = 945) at admission were discriminative (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Encephalopathy at admission predicts later progression to death in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, which may have important implications for risk stratification in clinical practice.