Body mass index and cancer risk among adults with and without cardiometabolic diseases: evidence from the EPIC and UK Biobank prospective cohort studies

BACKGROUND

Whether cancer risk associated with a higher body mass index (BMI), a surrogate measure of adiposity, differs among adults with and without cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and/or type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unclear. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate separate and joint associations of BMI and CVD/T2D with the risk of cancer.

METHODS

This is an individual participant data meta-analysis of two prospective cohort studies, the UK Biobank (UKB) and the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC), with a total of 577,343 adults, free of cancer, T2D, and CVD at recruitment. We used Cox proportional hazard regressions to estimate multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between BMI and incidence of obesity-related cancer and in turn overall cancer with a multiplicative interaction between BMI and the two cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). HRs and 95% CIs for separate and joint associations for categories of overweight/obesity and CMD status were estimated, and additive interaction was quantified through relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI).

RESULTS

In the meta-analysis of both cohorts, BMI (per ~ 5 kg/m2) was positively associated with the risk of obesity-related cancer among participants without a CMD (HR: 1.11, 95%CI: 1.07,1.16), among participants with T2D (HR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.05,1.18), among participants with CVD (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.11,1.24), and suggestively positive among those with both T2D and CVD (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.94,1.25). An additive interaction between obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and CVD with the risk of overall cancer translated into a meta-analytical RERI of 0.28 (95% CI: 0.09-0.47).

CONCLUSIONS

Irrespective of CMD status, higher BMI increased the risk of obesity-related cancer among European adults. The additive interaction between obesity and CVD suggests that obesity prevention would translate into a greater cancer risk reduction among population groups with CVD than among the general population.

Body mass index and incident cardiometabolic conditions in relation to obesity-related cancer risk: A population-based cohort study in Catalonia, Spain

BACKGROUND

We investigated the association between body mass index (BMI) and obesity-related cancer risk among individuals with/without incident hypertension (HTN), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the joint associations of overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m2 ) and each cardiometabolic condition with obesity-related cancer risk METHODS: We conducted a population-based cohort (n = 1,774,904 individuals aged ≥40 years and free of cancer and cardiometabolic conditions at baseline) study between 2010 and 2018 with electronic health records from Spain. Our main outcome measures were hazard ratios (HRs) for incident obesity-related cancers and relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI).

RESULTS

A total of 38,082 individuals developed obesity-related cancers after a median of 8 years of follow-up. The positive association between BMI and obesity-related cancer risk was similar among individuals free of cardiometabolic conditions (hazard ratio, HR per 5 kg/m2 : 1.08, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.06-1.10) and with incident HTN (1.05, 1.01-1.08). The association among those with incident T2DM was null (0.98, 0.93-1.03). There was a positive additive interaction between overweight/obesity and CVD (relative excess risk due to interaction [RERI]: 0.19 [0.09, 0.30]), meaning that the combined association was 0.19 more than the sum of the individual associations. In contrast, a RERI of -0.24 (-0.28, -0.20) was observed for the combined association between overweight/obesity and T2DM.

CONCLUSIONS

Public health strategies to reduce overweight can help prevent cancer cases among the general population and individuals with incident HTN/CVD. Further, weight-loss interventions seem to lead to a greater cancer risk reduction among individuals with CVD.

Transforming the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) in Catalonia to the OMOP Common Data Model and Its Use for COVID-19 Research

Purpose

The primary aim of this work was to convert the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) from Catalonia, Spain, to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM). Our second aim was to provide a descriptive analysis of COVID-19-related outcomes among the general population.

Patients and Methods

We mapped patient-level data from SIDIAP to the OMOP CDM and we performed more than 3,400 data quality checks to assess its readiness for research. We established a general population cohort as of the 1st March 2020 and identified outpatient COVID-19 diagnoses or tested positive for, hospitalised with, admitted to intensive care units (ICU) with, died with, or vaccinated against COVID-19 up to 30th June 2022.

Results

After verifying the high quality of the transformed dataset, we included 5,870,274 individuals in the general population cohort. Of those, 604,472 had either an outpatient COVID-19 diagnosis or positive test result, 58,991 had a hospitalisation, 5,642 had an ICU admission, and 11,233 died with COVID-19. A total of 4,584,515 received a COVID-19 vaccine. People who were hospitalised or died were more commonly older, male, and with more comorbidities. Those admitted to ICU with COVID-19 were generally younger and more often male than those hospitalised and those who died.

Conclusion

We successfully transformed SIDIAP to the OMOP CDM. From this dataset, a general population cohort of 5.9 million individuals was identified and their COVID-19-related outcomes over time were described. The transformed SIDIAP database is a valuable resource that can enable distributed network research in COVID-19 and beyond.

Longitudinal body mass index and cancer risk: a cohort study of 2.6 million Catalan adults

Single body mass index (BMI) measurements have been associated with increased risk of 13 cancers. Whether life course adiposity-related exposures are more relevant cancer risk factors than baseline BMI (ie, at start of follow-up for disease outcome) remains unclear. We conducted a cohort study from 2009 until 2018 with population-based electronic health records in Catalonia, Spain. We included 2,645,885 individuals aged ≥40 years and free of cancer in 2009. After 9 years of follow-up, 225,396 participants were diagnosed with cancer. This study shows that longer duration, greater degree, and younger age of onset of overweight and obesity during early adulthood are positively associated with risk of 18 cancers, including leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and among never-smokers, head and neck, and bladder cancers which are not yet considered as obesity-related cancers in the literature. Our findings support public health strategies for cancer prevention focussing on preventing and reducing early overweight and obesity.

Time trends in the incidence of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes by sex and socioeconomic status in Catalonia, Spain: a population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to estimate how longitudinal trends in cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence in Catalonia, Spain from 2009 to 2018 may differ by age, sex and socioeconomic deprivation.

DESIGN

Cohort study using prospectively collected data.

SETTING

Electronic health records from primary healthcare centres in Catalonia, Spain.

PARTICIPANTS

3 247 244 adults (≥40 years).

OUTCOME MEASURES

We calculated the annual incidence (per 1000 persons-year) and incidence rate ratios (IRR) between three time periods of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus to measure trends and changes in incidence during the study period.

RESULTS

In 2016-2018 compared with 2009-2012, cardiovascular disease incidence increased in the 40-54 (eg, IRR=1.61, 95% CI: 1.52 to 1.69 in women) and 55-69 age groups. There was no change in cardiovascular disease incidence in women aged 70+ years, and a slight decrease in men aged 70+ years (0.93, 0.90 to 0.95). Hypertension incidence decreased in all age groups for both sexes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence decreased in all age groups for both sexes (eg, 0.72, 0.70 to 0.73 in women aged 55-69 years), except for the 40-54 year age group (eg, 1.09, 1.06 to 1.13 in women). Higher incidence levels were found in the most deprived areas, especially in the 40-54 and 55-69 groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall cardiovascular disease incidence has increased while hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence have decreased in the last years in Catalonia, Spain, with differences in trends by age group and socioeconomic deprivation.

Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with and without asthma from the United States, South Korea, and Europe

Objective: Large international comparisons describing the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 are limited. The aim of the study was to perform a large-scale descriptive characterization of COVID-19 patients with asthma.Methods: We included nine databases contributing data from January to June 2020 from the US, South Korea (KR), Spain, UK and the Netherlands. We defined two cohorts of COVID-19 patients ('diagnosed' and 'hospitalized') based on COVID-19 disease codes. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes in people with asthma defined by codes and prescriptions.Results: The diagnosed and hospitalized cohorts contained 666,933 and 159,552 COVID-19 patients respectively. Exacerbation in people with asthma was recorded in 1.6-8.6% of patients at presentation. Asthma prevalence ranged from 6.2% (95% CI 5.7-6.8) to 18.5% (95% CI 18.2-18.8) in the diagnosed cohort and 5.2% (95% CI 4.0-6.8) to 20.5% (95% CI 18.6-22.6) in the hospitalized cohort. Asthma patients with COVID-19 had high prevalence of comorbidity including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality ranged from 2.1% (95% CI 1.8-2.4) to 16.9% (95% CI 13.8-20.5) and similar or lower compared to COVID-19 patients without asthma. Acute respiratory distress syndrome occurred in 15-30% of hospitalized COVID-19 asthma patients.Conclusion: The prevalence of asthma among COVID-19 patients varies internationally. Asthma patients with COVID-19 have high comorbidity. The prevalence of asthma exacerbation at presentation was low. Whilst mortality was similar among COVID-19 patients with and without asthma, this could be confounded by differences in clinical characteristics. Further research could help identify high-risk asthma patients.[Box: see text]Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02770903.2021.2025392 .

Air pollution and green spaces in relation to breast cancer risk among pre and postmenopausal women: A mega cohort from Catalonia

BACKGROUND

The association between air pollution and green spaces with breast cancer risk stratified by menopausal status has not been frequently investigated despite its importance given the different impact of risk factors on breast cancer risk depending on menopausal status.

OBJECTIVES

To study the association between air pollution, green spaces and pre and postmenopausal breast cancer risk.

METHODS

We conducted a population-based cohort study using electronic primary care records in Catalonia. We included women aged 17-85 years free of cancer at study entry between 2009 and 2017. Our exposures were particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM_2.5) & <10 μm (PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and percentage of green spaces estimated at the census tract level. Breast cancer was identified with ICD-10 code C50. We estimated cause-specific hazard ratios (HR) for the relationship between each individual exposure and pre and postmenopausal breast cancer risk, using linear and non-linear models.

RESULTS

Of the 1,054,180 pre and 744,658 postmenopausal women followed for a median of 10 years, 6,126 and 17,858 developed breast cancer, respectively. Among premenopausal women, only very high levels of PM₁₀ (≥46 μg/m³) were associated with increased cancer risk (compared to lower levels) in non-linear models. Among postmenopausal women, an interquartile range increase in PM_2.5 (HR:1.03; 95%CI:1.01-1.04), PM₁₀ (1.03; 1.01-1.05), and NO₂ (1.05; 1.02-1.08) were associated with higher cancer risk. NDVI was negatively associated with decreased cancer risk only among postmenopausal women who did not change residence during follow-up (0.84; 0.71-0.99) or who were followed for at least three years (0.82; 0.69-0.98).

DISCUSSION

Living in areas with high concentrations of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and NO₂ increases breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women while long-term exposure to green spaces may decrease this risk. Only very high concentrations of PM₁₀ increase breast cancer risk in premenopausal women.

Association between metabolic syndrome and 13 types of cancer in Catalonia: A matched case-control study

Background

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is the simultaneous occurrence of a cluster of predefined cardiovascular risk factors. Although individual MS components are associated with increased risk of cancer, it is still unclear whether the association between MS and cancer differs from the association between individual MS components and cancer. The aim of this matched case-control study was to estimate the association of 13 types of cancer with (1) MS and (2) the diagnosis of 0, 1 or 2 individual MS components.

Methods

Cases included 183,248 patients ≥40 years from the SIDIAP database with incident cancer diagnosed between January 2008-December 2017. Each case was matched to four controls by inclusion date, sex and age. Adjusted conditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between MS and cancer risk, comparing the effect of global MS versus having one or two individual components of MS.

Results

MS was associated with an increased risk of the following cancers: colorectal (OR: 1.28, 95%CI: 1.23–1.32), liver (OR: 1.93, 95%CI: 1.74–2.14), pancreas (OR: 1.79, 95%CI: 1.63–1.98), post-menopausal breast (OR: 1.10, 95%CI: 1.06–1.15), pre-menopausal endometrial (OR: 2.14, 95%CI: 1.74–2.65), post-menopausal endometrial (OR: 2.46, 95%CI: 2.20–2.74), bladder (OR: 1.41, 95%CI: 1.34–1.48), kidney (OR: 1.84, 95%CI: 1.69–2.00), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (OR: 1.23, 95%CI: 1.10–1.38), leukaemia (OR: 1.42, 95%CI: 1.31–1.54), lung (OR: 1.11, 95%CI: 1.05–1.16) and thyroid (OR: 1.71, 95%CI: 1.50–1.95). Except for prostate, pre-menopause breast cancer and Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, MS is associated with a higher risk of cancer than 1 or 2 individual MS components. Estimates were significantly higher in men than in women for colorectal and lung cancer, and in smokers than in non-smokers for lung cancer.

Conclusion

MS is associated with a higher risk of developing 11 types of common cancer, with a positive correlation between number of MS components and risk of cancer.

Unraveling COVID-19: A Large-Scale Characterization of 4.5 Million COVID-19 Cases Using CHARYBDIS

Purpose

Routinely collected real world data (RWD) have great utility in aiding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic response. Here we present the international Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) Characterizing Health Associated Risks and Your Baseline Disease In SARS-COV-2 (CHARYBDIS) framework for standardisation and analysis of COVID-19 RWD.

Patients and Methods

We conducted a descriptive retrospective database study using a federated network of data partners in the United States, Europe (the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Italy) and Asia (South Korea and China). The study protocol and analytical package were released on 11th June 2020 and are iteratively updated via GitHub. We identified three non-mutually exclusive cohorts of 4,537,153 individuals with a clinical COVID-19 diagnosis or positive test, 886,193 hospitalized with COVID-19, and 113,627 hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring intensive services.

Results

We aggregated over 22,000 unique characteristics describing patients with COVID-19. All comorbidities, symptoms, medications, and outcomes are described by cohort in aggregate counts and are readily available online. Globally, we observed similarities in the USA and Europe: more women diagnosed than men but more men hospitalized than women, most diagnosed cases between 25 and 60 years of age versus most hospitalized cases between 60 and 80 years of age. South Korea differed with more women than men hospitalized. Common comorbidities included type 2 diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and heart disease. Common presenting symptoms were dyspnea, cough and fever. Symptom data availability was more common in hospitalized cohorts than diagnosed.

Conclusion

We constructed a global, multi-centre view to describe trends in COVID-19 progression, management and evolution over time. By characterising baseline variability in patients and geography, our work provides critical context that may otherwise be misconstrued as data quality issues. This is important as we perform studies on adverse events of special interest in COVID-19 vaccine surveillance.

Cancer and the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 diagnosis, hospitalisation and death: A population-based multistate cohort study including 4 618 377 adults in Catalonia, Spain

The relationship between cancer and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and severity remains poorly understood. We conducted a population-based cohort study between 1 March and 6 May 2020 describing the associations between cancer and risk of COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and COVID-19-related death. Data were obtained from the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) database, including primary care electronic health records from ~80% of the population in Catalonia, Spain. Cancer was defined as any primary invasive malignancy excluding non-melanoma skin cancer. We estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the risk of COVID-19 (outpatient) clinical diagnosis, hospitalisation (with or without a prior COVID-19 diagnosis) and COVID-19-related death using Cox proportional hazard regressions. Models were estimated for the overall cancer population and by years since cancer diagnosis (<1 year, 1-5 years and ≥5 years), sex, age and cancer type; and adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, deprivation and comorbidities. We included 4 618 377 adults, of which 260 667 (5.6%) had a history of cancer. A total of 98 951 individuals (5.5% with cancer) were diagnosed, and 6355 (16.4% with cancer) were directly hospitalised with COVID-19. Of those diagnosed, 6851 were subsequently hospitalised (10.7% with cancer), and 3227 died without being hospitalised (18.5% with cancer). Among those hospitalised, 1963 (22.5% with cancer) died. Cancer was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 diagnosis (aHR: 1.08; 95% confidence interval [1.05-1.11]), direct COVID-19 hospitalisation (1.33 [1.24-1.43]) and death following hospitalisation (1.12 [1.01-1.25]). These associations were stronger for patients recently diagnosed with cancer, aged <70 years, and with haematological cancers. These patients should be prioritised in COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and continued non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 with and without prevalent hypertension: a multinational cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To characterise patients with and without prevalent hypertension and COVID-19 and to assess adverse outcomes in both inpatients and outpatients.

DESIGN AND SETTING

This is a retrospective cohort study using 15 healthcare databases (primary and secondary electronic healthcare records, insurance and national claims data) from the USA, Europe and South Korea, standardised to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership common data model. Data were gathered from 1 March to 31 October 2020.

PARTICIPANTS

Two non-mutually exclusive cohorts were defined: (1) individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 (diagnosed cohort) and (2) individuals hospitalised with COVID-19 (hospitalised cohort), and stratified by hypertension status. Follow-up was from COVID-19 diagnosis/hospitalisation to death, end of the study period or 30 days.

OUTCOMES

Demographics, comorbidities and 30-day outcomes (hospitalisation and death for the 'diagnosed' cohort and adverse events and death for the 'hospitalised' cohort) were reported.

RESULTS

We identified 2 851 035 diagnosed and 563 708 hospitalised patients with COVID-19. Hypertension was more prevalent in the latter (ranging across databases from 17.4% (95% CI 17.2 to 17.6) to 61.4% (95% CI 61.0 to 61.8) and from 25.6% (95% CI 24.6 to 26.6) to 85.9% (95% CI 85.2 to 86.6)). Patients in both cohorts with hypertension were predominantly >50 years old and female. Patients with hypertension were frequently diagnosed with obesity, heart disease, dyslipidaemia and diabetes. Compared with patients without hypertension, patients with hypertension in the COVID-19 diagnosed cohort had more hospitalisations (ranging from 1.3% (95% CI 0.4 to 2.2) to 41.1% (95% CI 39.5 to 42.7) vs from 1.4% (95% CI 0.9 to 1.9) to 15.9% (95% CI 14.9 to 16.9)) and increased mortality (ranging from 0.3% (95% CI 0.1 to 0.5) to 18.5% (95% CI 15.7 to 21.3) vs from 0.2% (95% CI 0.2 to 0.2) to 11.8% (95% CI 10.8 to 12.8)). Patients in the COVID-19 hospitalised cohort with hypertension were more likely to have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ranging from 0.1% (95% CI 0.0 to 0.2) to 65.6% (95% CI 62.5 to 68.7) vs from 0.1% (95% CI 0.0 to 0.2) to 54.7% (95% CI 50.5 to 58.9)), arrhythmia (ranging from 0.5% (95% CI 0.3 to 0.7) to 45.8% (95% CI 42.6 to 49.0) vs from 0.4% (95% CI 0.3 to 0.5) to 36.8% (95% CI 32.7 to 40.9)) and increased mortality (ranging from 1.8% (95% CI 0.4 to 3.2) to 25.1% (95% CI 23.0 to 27.2) vs from 0.7% (95% CI 0.5 to 0.9) to 10.9% (95% CI 10.4 to 11.4)) than patients without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS

COVID-19 patients with hypertension were more likely to suffer severe outcomes, hospitalisations and deaths compared with those without hypertension.

Body Mass Index and Risk of COVID-19 Diagnosis, Hospitalization, and Death: A Cohort Study of 2 524 926 Catalans

CONTEXT

A comprehensive understanding of the association between body mass index (BMI) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still lacking.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate associations between BMI and risk of COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalization with COVID-19, and death after a COVID-19 diagnosis or hospitalization (subsequent death), accounting for potential effect modification by age and sex.

DESIGN

Population-based cohort study.

SETTING

Primary care records covering >80% of the Catalan population, linked to regionwide testing, hospital, and mortality records from March to May 2020.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults (≥18 years) with at least 1 measurement of weight and height.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Hazard ratios (HR) for each outcome.

RESULTS

We included 2 524 926 participants. After 67 days of follow-up, 57 443 individuals were diagnosed with COVID-19, 10 862 were hospitalized with COVID-19, and 2467 had a subsequent death. BMI was positively associated with being diagnosed and hospitalized with COVID-19. Compared to a BMI of 22 kg/m2, the HR (95% CI) of a BMI of 31 kg/m2 was 1.22 (1.19-1.24) for diagnosis and 1.88 (1.75-2.03) and 2.01 (1.86-2.18) for hospitalization without and with a prior outpatient diagnosis, respectively. The association between BMI and subsequent death was J-shaped, with a modestly higher risk of death among individuals with BMIs ≤ 19 kg/m2 and a more pronounced increasing risk for BMIs ≥ 40 kg/m2. The increase in risk for COVID-19 outcomes was particularly pronounced among younger patients.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a monotonic association between BMI and COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization risks but a J-shaped relationship with mortality. More research is needed to unravel the mechanisms underlying these relationships.

COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries

OBJECTIVE

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

METHODS

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30 days of hospitalization.

RESULTS

We studied 133 589 patients diagnosed and 48 418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged ≥50 years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70 660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

CONCLUSION

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.

Characteristics and Outcomes of Over 300,000 Patients with COVID-19 and History of Cancer in the United States and Spain

BACKGROUND

We described the demographics, cancer subtypes, comorbidities, and outcomes of patients with a history of cancer and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Second, we compared patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and patients hospitalized with influenza.

METHODS

We conducted a cohort study using eight routinely collected health care databases from Spain and the United States, standardized to the Observational Medical Outcome Partnership common data model. Three cohorts of patients with a history of cancer were included: (i) diagnosed with COVID-19, (ii) hospitalized with COVID-19, and (iii) hospitalized with influenza in 2017 to 2018. Patients were followed from index date to 30 days or death. We reported demographics, cancer subtypes, comorbidities, and 30-day outcomes.

RESULTS

We included 366,050 and 119,597 patients diagnosed and hospitalized with COVID-19, respectively. Prostate and breast cancers were the most frequent cancers (range: 5%-18% and 1%-14% in the diagnosed cohort, respectively). Hematologic malignancies were also frequent, with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma being among the five most common cancer subtypes in the diagnosed cohort. Overall, patients were aged above 65 years and had multiple comorbidities. Occurrence of death ranged from 2% to 14% and from 6% to 26% in the diagnosed and hospitalized COVID-19 cohorts, respectively. Patients hospitalized with influenza (n = 67,743) had a similar distribution of cancer subtypes, sex, age, and comorbidities but lower occurrence of adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with a history of cancer and COVID-19 had multiple comorbidities and a high occurrence of COVID-19-related events. Hematologic malignancies were frequent.

IMPACT

This study provides epidemiologic characteristics that can inform clinical care and etiologic studies.

Thirty-Day Outcomes of Children and Adolescents With COVID-19: An International Experience

OBJECTIVES

To characterize the demographics, comorbidities, symptoms, in-hospital treatments, and health outcomes among children and adolescents diagnosed or hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to compare them in secondary analyses with patients diagnosed with previous seasonal influenza in 2017-2018.

METHODS

International network cohort using real-world data from European primary care records (France, Germany, and Spain), South Korean claims and US claims, and hospital databases. We included children and adolescents diagnosed and/or hospitalized with COVID-19 at age <18 between January and June 2020. We described baseline demographics, comorbidities, symptoms, 30-day in-hospital treatments, and outcomes including hospitalization, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and death.

RESULTS

A total of 242 158 children and adolescents diagnosed and 9769 hospitalized with COVID-19 and 2 084 180 diagnosed with influenza were studied. Comorbidities including neurodevelopmental disorders, heart disease, and cancer were more common among those hospitalized with versus diagnosed with COVID-19. Dyspnea, bronchiolitis, anosmia, and gastrointestinal symptoms were more common in COVID-19 than influenza. In-hospital prevalent treatments for COVID-19 included repurposed medications (<10%) and adjunctive therapies: systemic corticosteroids (6.8%-7.6%), famotidine (9.0%-28.1%), and antithrombotics such as aspirin (2.0%-21.4%), heparin (2.2%-18.1%), and enoxaparin (2.8%-14.8%). Hospitalization was observed in 0.3% to 1.3% of the cohort diagnosed with COVID-19, with undetectable (n < 5 per database) 30-day fatality. Thirty-day outcomes including pneumonia and hypoxemia were more frequent in COVID-19 than influenza.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite negligible fatality, complications including hospitalization, hypoxemia, and pneumonia were more frequent in children and adolescents with COVID-19 than with influenza. Dyspnea, anosmia, and gastrointestinal symptoms could help differentiate diagnoses. A wide range of medications was used for the inpatient management of pediatric COVID-19.

Characteristics and outcomes of 627 044 COVID-19 patients living with and without obesity in the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom

BACKGROUND

A detailed characterization of patients with COVID-19 living with obesity has not yet been undertaken. We aimed to describe and compare the demographics, medical conditions, and outcomes of COVID-19 patients living with obesity (PLWO) to those of patients living without obesity.

METHODS

We conducted a cohort study based on outpatient/inpatient care and claims data from January to June 2020 from Spain, the UK, and the US. We used six databases standardized to the OMOP common data model. We defined two non-mutually exclusive cohorts of patients diagnosed and/or hospitalized with COVID-19; patients were followed from index date to 30 days or death. We report the frequency of demographics, prior medical conditions, and 30-days outcomes (hospitalization, events, and death) by obesity status.

RESULTS

We included 627 044 (Spain: 122 058, UK: 2336, and US: 502 650) diagnosed and 160 013 (Spain: 18 197, US: 141 816) hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The prevalence of obesity was higher among patients hospitalized (39.9%, 95%CI: 39.8-40.0) than among those diagnosed with COVID-19 (33.1%; 95%CI: 33.0-33.2). In both cohorts, PLWO were more often female. Hospitalized PLWO were younger than patients without obesity. Overall, COVID-19 PLWO were more likely to have prior medical conditions, present with cardiovascular and respiratory events during hospitalization, or require intensive services compared to COVID-19 patients without obesity.

CONCLUSION

We show that PLWO differ from patients without obesity in a wide range of medical conditions and present with more severe forms of COVID-19, with higher hospitalization rates and intensive services requirements. These findings can help guiding preventive strategies of COVID-19 infection and complications and generating hypotheses for causal inference studies.

Use of repurposed and adjuvant drugs in hospital patients with covid-19: multinational network cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the use of repurposed and adjuvant drugs in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 across three continents.

DESIGN

Multinational network cohort study.

SETTING

Hospital electronic health records from the United States, Spain, and China, and nationwide claims data from South Korea.

PARTICIPANTS

303 264 patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 from January 2020 to December 2020.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Prescriptions or dispensations of any drug on or 30 days after the date of hospital admission for covid-19.

RESULTS

Of the 303 264 patients included, 290 131 were from the US, 7599 from South Korea, 5230 from Spain, and 304 from China. 3455 drugs were identified. Common repurposed drugs were hydroxychloroquine (used in from <5 (<2%) patients in China to 2165 (85.1%) in Spain), azithromycin (from 15 (4.9%) in China to 1473 (57.9%) in Spain), combined lopinavir and ritonavir (from 156 (<2%) in the VA-OMOP US to 2,652 (34.9%) in South Korea and 1285 (50.5%) in Spain), and umifenovir (0% in the US, South Korea, and Spain and 238 (78.3%) in China). Use of adjunctive drugs varied greatly, with the five most used treatments being enoxaparin, fluoroquinolones, ceftriaxone, vitamin D, and corticosteroids. Hydroxychloroquine use increased rapidly from March to April 2020 but declined steeply in May to June and remained low for the rest of the year. The use of dexamethasone and corticosteroids increased steadily during 2020.

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple drugs were used in the first few months of the covid-19 pandemic, with substantial geographical and temporal variation. Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, lopinavir-ritonavir, and umifenovir (in China only) were the most prescribed repurposed drugs. Antithrombotics, antibiotics, H2 receptor antagonists, and corticosteroids were often used as adjunctive treatments. Research is needed on the comparative risk and benefit of these treatments in the management of covid-19.

Unraveling COVID-19: a large-scale characterization of 4.5 million COVID-19 cases using CHARYBDIS

Background: Routinely collected real world data (RWD) have great utility in aiding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic response [1,2]. Here we present the international Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) [3] Characterizing Health Associated Risks, and Your Baseline Disease In SARS-COV-2 (CHARYBDIS) framework for standardisation and analysis of COVID-19 RWD. Methods: We conducted a descriptive cohort study using a federated network of data partners in the United States, Europe (the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Italy) and Asia (South Korea and China). The study protocol and analytical package were released on 11 th June 2020 and are iteratively updated via GitHub [4]. Findings: We identified three non-mutually exclusive cohorts of 4,537,153 individuals with a clinical COVID-19 diagnosis or positive test, 886,193 hospitalized with COVID-19 , and 113,627 hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring intensive services . All comorbidities, symptoms, medications, and outcomes are described by cohort in aggregate counts, and are available in an interactive website: https://data.ohdsi.org/Covid19CharacterizationCharybdis/. Interpretation: CHARYBDIS findings provide benchmarks that contribute to our understanding of COVID-19 progression, management and evolution over time. This can enable timely assessment of real-world outcomes of preventative and therapeutic options as they are introduced in clinical practice.

Use of dialysis, tracheostomy, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation among 842,928 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States

Objective

To estimate the proportion of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who undergo dialysis, tracheostomy, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Design

A network cohort study.

Setting

Seven databases from the United States containing routinely-collected patient data: HealthVerity, Premier, IQVIA Hospital CDM, IQVIA Open Claims, Optum EHR, Optum SES, and VA-OMOP.

Patients

Patients hospitalized with a clinical diagnosis or a positive test result for COVID-19.

Interventions

Dialysis, tracheostomy, and ECMO.

Measurements and Main Results

842,928 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were included (22,887 from HealthVerity, 77,853 from IQVIA Hospital CDM, 533,997 from IQVIA Open Claims, 36,717 from Optum EHR, 4,336 from OPTUM SES, 156,187 from Premier, and 10,951 from VA-OMOP). Across the six databases, 35,192 (4.17% [95% CI: 4.13% to 4.22%]) patients received dialysis, 6,950 (0.82% [0.81% to 0.84%]) had a tracheostomy, and 1,568 (0.19% [95% CI: 0.18% to 0.20%]) patients underwent ECMO over the 30 days following hospitalization. Use of ECMO was more common among patients who were younger, male, and with fewer comorbidities. Tracheostomy was broadly used for a similar proportion of patients regardless of age, sex, or comorbidity. While dialysis was generally used for a similar proportion among younger and older patients, it was more frequent among male patients and among those with chronic kidney disease.

Conclusion

Use of dialysis among those hospitalized with COVID-19 is high at around 4%. Although less than one percent of patients undergo tracheostomy and ECMO, the absolute numbers of patients who have undergone these interventions is substantial.

The natural history of symptomatic COVID-19 during the first wave in Catalonia

The natural history of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has yet to be fully described. Here, we use patient-level data from the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) to summarise COVID-19 outcomes in Catalonia, Spain. We included 5,586,521 individuals from the general population. Of these, 102,002 had an outpatient diagnosis of COVID-19, 16,901 were hospitalised with COVID-19, and 5273 died after either being diagnosed or hospitalised with COVID-19 between 1st March and 6th May 2020. Older age, being male, and having comorbidities were all generally associated with worse outcomes. These findings demonstrate the continued need to protect those at high risk of poor outcomes, particularly older people, from COVID-19 and provide appropriate care for those who develop symptomatic disease. While risks of hospitalisation and death were lower for younger populations, there is a need to limit their role in community transmission.

Body mass index and waist circumference in relation to the risk of 26 types of cancer: a prospective cohort study of 3.5 million adults in Spain

BACKGROUND

A high body mass index (BMI) has been associated with increased risk of several cancers; however, whether BMI is related to a larger number of cancers than currently recognized is unclear. Moreover, whether waist circumference (WC) is more strongly associated with specific cancers than BMI is not well established. We aimed to investigate the associations between BMI and 26 cancers accounting for non-linearity and residual confounding by smoking status as well as to compare cancer risk estimates between BMI and WC.

METHODS

Prospective cohort study with population-based electronic health records from Catalonia, Spain. We included 3,658,417 adults aged ≥ 18 years and free of cancer at baseline between 2006 and 2017. Our main outcome measures were cause-specific hazard ratios (HRs) with 99% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident cancer at 26 anatomical sites.

RESULTS

After a median follow-up time of 8.3 years, 202,837 participants were diagnosed with cancer. A higher BMI was positively associated with risk of nine cancers (corpus uteri, kidney, gallbladder, thyroid, colorectal, breast post-menopausal, multiple myeloma, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma) and was positively associated with three additional cancers among never smokers (head and neck, brain and central nervous system, Hodgkin lymphoma). The respective HRs (per 5 kg/m2 increment) ranged from 1.04 (99%CI 1.01 to 1.08) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma to 1.49 (1.45 to 1.53) for corpus uteri cancer. While BMI was negatively associated to five cancer types in the linear analyses of the overall population, accounting for non-linearity revealed that BMI was associated to prostate cancer in a U-shaped manner and to head and neck, esophagus, larynx, and trachea, bronchus and lung cancers in an L-shaped fashion, suggesting that low BMIs are an approximation of heavy smoking. Of the 291,305 participants with a WC measurement, 27,837 were diagnosed with cancer. The 99%CIs of the BMI and WC point estimates (per 1 standard deviation increment) overlapped for all cancers.

CONCLUSIONS

In this large Southern European study, a higher BMI was associated with increased risk of twelve cancers, including four hematological and head and neck (only among never smokers) cancers. Furthermore, BMI and WC showed comparable estimates of cancer risk associated with adiposity.

Baseline characteristics, management, and outcomes of 55,270 children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID-19 and 1,952,693 with influenza in France, Germany, Spain, South Korea and the United States: an international network cohort study

Objectives To characterize the demographics, comorbidities, symptoms, in-hospital treatments, and health outcomes among children/adolescents diagnosed or hospitalized with COVID-19. Secondly, to describe health outcomes amongst children/adolescents diagnosed with previous seasonal influenza. Design International network cohort. Setting Real-world data from European primary care records (France/Germany/Spain), South Korean claims and US claims and hospital databases. Participants Diagnosed and/or hospitalized children/adolescents with COVID-19 at age <18 between January and June 2020; diagnosed with influenza in 2017-2018. Main outcome measures Baseline demographics and comorbidities, symptoms, 30-day in-hospital treatments and outcomes including hospitalization, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), and death. Results A total of 55,270 children/adolescents diagnosed and 3,693 hospitalized with COVID-19 and 1,952,693 diagnosed with influenza were studied. Comorbidities including neurodevelopmental disorders, heart disease, and cancer were all more common among those hospitalized vs diagnosed with COVID-19. The most common COVID-19 symptom was fever. Dyspnea, bronchiolitis, anosmia and gastrointestinal symptoms were more common in COVID-19 than influenza. In-hospital treatments for COVID-19 included repurposed medications (<10%), and adjunctive therapies: systemic corticosteroids (6.8% to 37.6%), famotidine (9.0% to 28.1%), and antithrombotics such as aspirin (2.0% to 21.4%), heparin (2.2% to 18.1%), and enoxaparin (2.8% to 14.8%). Hospitalization was observed in 0.3% to 1.3% of the COVID-19 diagnosed cohort, with undetectable (N<5 per database) 30-day fatality. Thirty-day outcomes including pneumonia, ARDS, and MIS-C were more frequent in COVID-19 than influenza. Conclusions Despite negligible fatality, complications including pneumonia, ARDS and MIS-C were more frequent in children/adolescents with COVID-19 than with influenza. Dyspnea, anosmia and gastrointestinal symptoms could help differential diagnosis. A wide range of medications were used for the inpatient management of pediatric COVID-19.

Baseline phenotype and 30-day outcomes of people tested for COVID-19: an international network cohort including >3.32 million people tested with real-time PCR and >219,000 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in South Korea, Spain and the United States

Early identification of symptoms and comorbidities most predictive of COVID-19 is critical to identify infection, guide policies to effectively contain the pandemic, and improve health systems' response. Here, we characterised socio-demographics and comorbidity in 3,316,107persons tested and 219,072 persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 since January 2020, and their key health outcomes in the month following the first positive test. Routine care data from primary care electronic health records (EHR) from Spain, hospital EHR from the United States (US), and claims data from South Korea and the US were used. The majority of study participants were women aged 18-65 years old. Positive/tested ratio varied greatly geographically (2.2:100 to 31.2:100) and over time (from 50:100 in February-April to 6.8:100 in May-June). Fever, cough and dyspnoea were the most common symptoms at presentation. Between 4%-38% required admission and 1-10.5% died within a month from their first positive test. Observed disparity in testing practices led to variable baseline characteristics and outcomes, both nationally (US) and internationally. Our findings highlight the importance of large scale characterization of COVID-19 international cohorts to inform planning and resource allocation including testing as countries face a second wave.

SAT0134 COMPARATIVE RISK OF CANCER ASSOCIATED WITH FIRST-LINE DMARDS USE IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: REAL WORLD EVIDENCE FROM THE OHDSI NETWORK

Background:

Conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) are recommended as first line treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, but limited information exists on the comparative risk of cancer associated with their use.

Objectives:

To compare the risk of incident overall (excluding non-melanoma skin) and site-specific cancers (colorectal, lung, lymphoma, leukaemia) associated with first-line use of csDMARDs in patients with RA.

Methods:

We conducted a multinational cohort study informed by data from 7 healthcare databases including claims and electronic medical records from 4 countries (SIDIAP-Spain, MDCR-US Optum-US, CCAE-US, IQVIA AMBEMR-US, IQVIA-Germany, THIN-UK) part of the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) network. All patients aged ≥18 years who initiated methotrexate (MTX), hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), sulphasalazine (SSZ), or leflunomide (LEF) as first-line monotherapy after a diagnosis of RA between 2005 to 2018 were eligible. Individuals with a prior diagnosis of another inflammatory arthropathy or cancer, or <1 year of follow-up were excluded. Patients were followed from 1-year after treatment initiation to the earliest of incident cancer, loss to follow-up, or 5-years. Cox proportional-hazard models for MTX against each other csDMARD were performed after propensity score stratification. A large set of negative control outcomes were analysed to calibrate hazard ratios (cHRs). Estimates were pooled where homogeneity across sources was adequate (I2<0.4).

Results:

Across the databases, 127,547 RA patients initiating csDMARD therapy were included in the analyses (MTX: 73,996, HCL: 36,381 SSZ: 9,383 LEF: 7,787). The pooled incidence rate of overall cancer for MTX was 22.8 per 1,000 person years. The pooled summary and source-specific estimated cHRs for overall cancer are shown below in Figure 1. While little difference was seen for HCQ and SSZ compared to MTX, LEF was consistently associated with a reduced cancer risk: pooled cHR (95% CI) 0.67 (0.59 to 0.76) and cHRs ranged from 0.53 (0.36 to 0.80) in CCAE-US to 0.84 (0.58 to 1.22) in SIDIAP-Spain. There were insufficient cases to look site-specific cancers within data sources, although pooled results suggest little risk difference in leukemia, lymphoma, colorectal, or lung cancers.

Figure 1.

Calibrated hazard ratios (cHRs) of overall cancer risk with their respective confidence intervals (95%CI) by study database. Database estimates not reported where adequate covariate balance not attained. Meta-analysis results not reported where I2>0.4.

Conclusion:

Compared to MTX users, patients treated with LEF had a lower risk of overall cancer. Risk of four specific cancers did not differ by first line csDMARD exposure.

Disclosure of Interests: :

Talita Duarte-Salles: None declared, Martina Recalde: None declared, James Weaver Shareholder of: J&J Shares, Grant/research support from: Full-time employment salary from Janssen, Consultant of: Janssen employee, Employee of: Janssen, Paid instructor for: Janssen employee, have instructed at conferences, Speakers bureau: Janssen employee, have spoken at conferences, Edward Burn: None declared, Karine Marinier Employee of: Servier, Yesika Díaz: None declared, Ben Illingens: None declared, David Vizcaya Employee of: Bayer, Katerina Chatzidionysiou Consultant of: AbbVie, Pfizer, Lilly., Patrick Ryan: None declared, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra Grant/research support from: Professor Prieto-Alhambra has received research Grants from AMGEN, UCB Biopharma and Les Laboratoires Servier, Consultant of: DPA’s department has received fees for consultancy services from UCB Biopharma, Speakers bureau: DPA’s department has received fees for speaker and advisory board membership services from Amgen

Validation Of Cancer Diagnoses In Electronic Health Records: Results From The Information System For Research In Primary Care (SIDIAP) In Northeast Spain

Background

Electronic health records are becoming an increasingly valuable resource for epidemiology but their data quality needs to be quantified. We aimed to validate twenty-five types of incident cancer cases in the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) in Catalonia with the population-based cancer registries of Girona and Tarragona as the gold-standard.

Methods

We calculated the sensitivity, positive predictive values (PPV), and the time-difference between the date of diagnosis entered into the SIDIAP and into the registries. We added hospital discharge cancer diagnoses to the SIDIAP to assess sensitivity changes.

Results

We identified 27,046 incident cancer diagnoses in the SIDIAP from 2009–2015 among the 949,841 residents of Girona and Tarragona. The cancer types with the highest sensitivity were breast (89%, 95% CI: 88–90%), colorectal (81%, 95% CI: 80–82%), and prostate (81%, 95% CI: 80–83%). Trachea, bronchus and lung cancers had the highest PPV (76%, 95% CI: 74%-78%) followed by stomach (72%, 95% CI: 68–75%) and pancreas (71%, 95% CI: 67–75%). Most cancer diagnoses were reported with less than three months of difference between the SIDIAP and the registries. More cases were registered first in the registries than in the SIDIAP. By adding cancer diagnoses based on hospital discharge data, sensitivity increased for all cancers, especially for gallbladder and biliary tract for which the sensitivity increased by 21%.

Conclusion

The SIDIAP includes 76% of the cancer diagnoses in the cancer registries but includes a considerable number of cases that are not in the registries. The SIDIAP reports most of the cancer diagnoses within a three-month period difference from the date of diagnosis in the cancer registries. Our results support the use of the SIDIAP cancer diagnoses for epidemiological research when cancer is the outcome of interest. We recommend adding hospital discharge data to the SIDIAP to increase data quality, particularly for less frequent cancer types.

Outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa producing VIM-8, a novel metallo-beta-lactamase, in a tertiary care center in Cali, Colombia

The prevalence of imipenem resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates at a 195-bed tertiary care medical center in Cali, Colombia, rose from 2% in 1996 to 28% in 1997 and to over 40% in 2003. Many isolates showed high-level multiresistance, and phenotypic characterization suggested the spread of a predominant strain with minor variants. Sixty-six resistant isolates collected between February 1999 and July 2003 from hospitalized patients (n = 54) and environmental samples (n = 12) were subjected to a fuller analysis. Genetic fingerprints were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of SpeI-digested genomic DNA, and bla(IMP) and bla(VIM) genes were sought by PCR. PFGE and serotyping indicated that 52 of the 66 isolates belonged to a single strain, with 82% similarity; the PFGE pattern for this organism was designated pattern A. Two further pairs of isolates represented single strains; the remaining nine isolates were unique, and in the case of one isolate, no satisfactory PFGE profile could be obtained. The pattern A isolates were mostly of serotype O12 and were highly resistant to imipenem (MICs, 32 to >256 microg/ml), with this resistance decreased eightfold or more in the presence of EDTA. They yielded amplicons with bla(VIM)-specific primers, and sequencing of DNA from a representative isolate revealed bla(VIM-8), a novel allele with three polymorphisms compared with the sequence of bla(VIM-2). Two of these nucleotide changes were silent, but the third determined a Thr139Ala substitution. Only 4 of 13 resistant isolates (2 clinical isolates and 2 environmental isolates) assigned to other PFGE types carried bla(VIM) alleles, whereas the others were less multiresistant and mostly had lower levels of imipenem resistance (MICs, < or =32 microg/ml) which was not significantly reduced by EDTA. No bla(IMP) alleles were detected. During 2003, when the environmental study was undertaken, serotype O12 isolates with bla(VIM) were recovered from sinks and stethoscopes in the most-affected units, although not from the hands of staff; the problem declined once these reservoirs were disinfected and hygienic precautions were reinforced.

Severe digestive pathology associated with chronic Chagas' disease in Ecuador: report of two cases

DNA extracted from peripheral blood of two Ecuadorian patients showing severe digestive pathology was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction using a Trypanosoma cruzi specific oligonucleotide primers derived from the primary sequence of a cDNA encoding for a 24 kDa excretory/secretory protein. The positive PCR results together with the clinical findings confirmed that both patients had a digestive pathology due to Chagas' disease. This pathology could be more frequent than previously described in the chagasic endemic regions of Andean countries.

[Evaluation of blood cultures in anaerobiosis]

BACKGROUND

The rate of processed blood cultures from anaerobic bottles was checked and the number of isolates from anaerobic microorganisms and other non anaerobic ones from processed bottles was established. Next, we studied the relationship between bacteremia caused by anaerobic organisms and the clinical history.

METHODS

A total of 3.540 blood cultures have been checked for a period of 21 months; all of them were processed using Bactec NR 730 system. Those patients suffering bacteremia caused by anaerobic microorganisms had their medical histories revised. There is neither Gynecology nor Pediatrics Services at our Medical Center.

RESULTS

Eleven episodes of bacteremias caused by anaerobic microorganisms have been detected since we started our research 21 months ago. Three aerobic microorganisms grew only in the two processed bottles in anaerobiosis, being their respective aerobic cultures negative. In all cases of bacteremia caused by anaerobic bacteria, the clinical history was compatible with this infection.

CONCLUSIONS

We consider it is worth keeping the anaerobic bottles, because the number of anaerobic microorganisms isolates is considerable and clinically significant. A 2.76% incidence, where there is not gynecologist hospitalization, seems to be a high and relevant one. An alternative approach is to perform them only under certain clinical circumstances, although the process of collecting samples would make it a difficult task.