COVID-19

A collaboration of several Swiss universities and the Swiss Red Cross evaluated eleven different commercially available lateral flow assays (LFA) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgM and IgG antibodies in plasma from up to 500 blood donations from flu-seasons 2016-2019, and more than 300 serum samples from convalescent COVID-19 patients in the canton Basel-Landschaft from the initial epidemic wave. Nine out of the eleven tests showed specificities below 99%, only five of eleven tests showed sensitivities comparable to established ELISAs, and only one fulfilled both criteria. Only this assay would be usable for epidemiological studies or in certain diagnostic settings.

This review article provides an overview of chest imaging findings of the Kawasaki-like Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) with COVID-19. The article also addresses fundamental issues such as typical patient demographics, clinical presentation, clinical course, treatment and outcome in addition to imaging findings.

The World Health Organization has published and recommendations on the use of radiologic imaging for the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and with different degrees of disease severity

This article analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on private radiology practices, which have experienced significant decreases of examination volumes (of up to 80%) and review strategies that may help these practices to survive the pandemic.

RCT comparing remdesivir for 5 days or 10 days vs. standard of care in patients with mild COVID-19 (pulmonary infiltrates but room-air oxygen saturation >94%) from 105 hospitals across the United States, Asia and Europe. Patients in the 5-day remdesivir arm (but not those in the 10-day arm) were more likely to have a better clinical status on day 11 compared to those in the standard of care arm. No difference was seen in any of the secondary outcomes (including mortality, time to discharge).

Comprehensive clinical characterization of 651 COVID-19 cases in children and young people (0-19 years) admitted to UK hospitals and comprising only 0.9% of COVID-19 hospitalizations of all ages.

In a nation-wide pediatric ENT quality project, in which asymptomatic children presenting for ENT surgery or outpatient visits were tested routinely, 250 of 30'041 (0.65%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Positivity (range 0-2.2%) strongly correlated with regional prevalence of COVID-19 in the general population.

This state-wide study from New South Wales (population 8.1 million; 3'033 confirmed cases overall) identifies low seconary transmission rates on schools (1.2% of exposed contacts) and child care centers (0.5%).

This article presents that COVID-19 in obese patients is associated with elevated morbidity and mortality based on data from multiple countries.

In this retrospective analysis of 7143 patients that visited the Bern ED in March 2019 or March 2020, the authors compare the two cohorts by means of logistic and linear regression. They find that overall numbers substantially decreased after the Covid 19 induced lockdown of Switzerland. While the number of patients complaining of respiratory symtomps substantially increased in 2020, patients suffering from stroke, myocardial infarction or pulmonary empolism presented (much) less often.