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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a global health problem, associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 or with seasonal influenza in a teaching hospital in Belgium., Methods: In this retrospective, single-center cohort study, 1384 patients with COVID-19 and 226 patients with influenza were matched using a propensity score with a ratio of 3:1. Primary outcomes included admission to intensive care unit (ICU), intubation rates, hospital length of stay, readmissions within 30 days and in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included pulmonary bacterial superinfection, cardiovascular complications and ECMO., Results: Based on the analysis of the matched sample, patients with influenza had an increased risk of readmission within 30 days (Risk Difference (RD): 0.07, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.11) and admission to intensive care unit (RD: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.15) compared with those with COVID-19. Patients with influenza had also more pulmonary bacterial superinfections (46.2% vs 7.4%) and more cardiovascular complications (32% vs 3.9%) than patients with COVID-19.However, a two-fold increased risk of mortality (RD: -0.10, 95% CI: 0.15 to -0.05) was observed in COVID-19 compared to influenza. ECMO was also more required among the COVID-19 patients who died than among influenza patients (5% vs 0%)., Conclusions: COVID-19 is associated with a higher in-hospital mortality compared to influenza infection, despite a high rate of ICU admission in the influenza group. These findings highlighted that the severity of hospitalized patients with influenza should not be underestimated., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The efficacy of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (NR; Paxlovid, Pfizer, New York, NY) to decrease the risk of progression to severe COVID-19 in high-risk patients has been demonstrated. However, evidence in infected kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) is lacking. Moreover, NR has significant and potentially harmful interactions with calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs)., Methods: In this single-center retrospective study, we included all KTRs treated with NR from April 28 to June 3, 2022. A standard management strategy of CNI dose adaptation (discontinuation of tacrolimus 12 hours before the start of NR and administration of 20% of the cyclosporine dose) and laboratory follow-up was applied., Results: A total of 14 patients were included. Compared with day-0 (day before NR initiation), day-7 plasma creatinine concentrations and SARS-CoV-2 viral loads were similar ( P  = 0.866) and decreased ( P  = 0.002), respectively. CNI trough concentrations at the end of the treatment were satisfactory, nonetheless, with high individual variability. After a median follow-up time of 34 days, no death or viral pneumonia were observed. Nevertheless, 2 patients experienced early SARS-CoV-2 infection relapses (at day-10 and day-21) associated with an increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral loads., Conclusion: NR can be used in KTRs but requires a strict protocol of drug adaptation. We observed 2 cases of early relapse after NR treatment that need further investigations., (© 2022 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on functional exercise capacity seemed quickly clinically evident. The objective of this study was to assess the functional exercise capacity of patients with severe COVID-19 and to evaluate the effect of a telerehabilitation program in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic., Method: Patients hospitalized for severe or critical COVID-19 were recruited. The functional exercise capacity (1-min sit-to-stand test (STST)) was prospectively quantified at discharge. A telerehabilitation program was then proposed. A control group was composed with the patients refusing the program., Results: At discharge, none of the 48 recruited patients had a STST higher than the 50th percentile and 77% of them were below the 2.5th percentile. SpO2 was 92.6 ± 3.0% after STST and 15 patients had oxygen desaturation. After 3-months of follow-up, the number of repetitions during STST significantly increased either in telerehabilitation (n = 14) (p < 0.001) or in control groups (n = 13) (p = 0.002) but only one patient had a result higher than the 50th percentile (in Telerehabilitation group) and 37% of them were still under the 2.5th percentile for this result. The improvement was significantly and clinically greater after the telerehabilitation program (p = 0.005). No adverse events were reported by the patients during the program., Conclusions: Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 have a low functional exercise capacity at discharge and the recovery after three months is poor. The feasibility and the effect of a simple telerehabilitation program were verified, this program being able to substantially improve the functional recovery after three months., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented number of hospitalizations in general wards and intensive care units (ICU). Severe and critical COVID-19 patients suffer from extensive pneumonia; therefore, long-term respiratory sequelae may be expected., Research Question: We conducted a cohort study to determine respiratory sequelae in patients with severe and critical COVID-19. We aimed at evaluating the proportion of patients with persisting respiratory symptoms and/or abnormalities in pulmonary function tests (PFT) or in lung imaging., Study Design: and methods: This is a single center cohort study including COVID-19 survivors who underwent a three-month follow-up with clinical evaluation, PFT and lung high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). All clinical, functional, and radiological data were centrally reviewed. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with residual lesions on HRCT., Results: Full clinical evaluation, PFT and lung HRCT were available for central review in 126, 122 and 107 patients, respectively. At follow-up, 25% of patients complained from dyspnea and 35% from fatigue, lung diffusion capacity (DLCO) was decreased in 45%, 17% had HRCT abnormalities affecting more than 5% of their lung parenchyma while signs of fibrosis were found in 21%. In multiple linear regression model, number of days in ICU were related to the extent of persisting lesions on HRCT, while intubation was associated with signs of fibrosis at follow-up (P = 0.0005, Fisher's exact test). In contrast, the severity of lung imaging or PFT changes were not predictive of fatigue and dyspnea., Interpretation: Although most hospitalized COVID-19 patients recover, a substantial proportion complains from persisting dyspnea and fatigue. Impairment of DLCO and signs suggestive of fibrosis are common but are not strictly related to long-lasting symptoms., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is commonly associated with kidney damage, and the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for SARS-CoV-2 is highly expressed in the proximal tubule cells. Whether patients with COVID-19 present specific manifestations of proximal tubule dysfunction remains unknown. To test this, we examined a cohort of 49 patients requiring hospitalization in a large academic hospital in Brussels, Belgium. There was evidence of proximal tubule dysfunction in a subset of patients with COVID-19, as attested by low-molecular-weight proteinuria (70-80%), neutral aminoaciduria (46%), and defective handling of uric acid (46%) or phosphate (19%). None of the patients had normoglycemic glucosuria. Proximal tubule dysfunction was independent of pre-existing comorbidities, glomerular proteinuria, nephrotoxic medications or viral load. At the structural level, kidneys from patients with COVID-19 showed prominent tubular injury, including in the initial part of the proximal tubule, with brush border loss, acute tubular necrosis, intraluminal debris, and a marked decrease in the expression of megalin in the brush border. Transmission electron microscopy identified particles resembling coronaviruses in vacuoles or cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum in proximal tubule cells. Among features of proximal tubule dysfunction, hypouricemia with inappropriate uricosuria was independently associated with disease severity and with a significant increase in the risk of respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation using Cox (adjusted hazard ratio 6.2, 95% CI 1.9-20.1) or competing risks (adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratio 12.1, 95% CI 2.7-55.4) survival models. Thus, our data establish that SARS-CoV-2 causes specific manifestations of proximal tubule dysfunction and provide novel insights into COVID-19 severity and outcome., (Copyright © 2020 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)