Contributor: Ricky Dhaliwal, MD Educational Pearls: What factors are considered in a COVID-19 infection? The viral load: Understood as the impact of SARS-CoV-2 viral particles infecting host cell tissue itself (utilizing ACE-2 receptors). Pro-Inflammatory Response: Post-infection, the body’s downstream systemic cytokine release (can be both normal or hyperactive, aka “cytokine storm”). What cardiac impacts have…
Read MoreContributor: Jared Scott, MD Educational Pearls: About 50% of those infected with SARS-CoV-2 will shed the virus in their feces Wastewater surveillance can be used to track COVID burden, which may be easier than collating test data from multiple hospitals across a region Viral shedding begins 5-7 days prior to symptom onset, so wastewater data…
Read MoreContributor: Nick Tsipis, MD Educational Pearls: Observational study in Israel evaluated cohort of vaccinated pregnant women receiving the initial Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine Looked at 24,288 newborns with about 16,697 exposed to maternal vaccination in utero Longitudinal follow up showed no significant difference in preterm births, neonatal hospitalizations, post-natal hospitalizations, congenital abnormalities, or mortality While…
Read MoreContributor: Aaron Lessen, MD Educational Pearls: Recent study evaluated budesonide for outpatient COVID-19 infection treatment to see if there was a decrease in length of illness or hospitalization rates Found patients who received a budesonide inhaler had recovery times that were about 3 days shorter and there was a slight (non-significant) decrease in hospitalizations References…
Read MoreContributor: Nick Hatch, MD Educational Pearls: Inhaled nitric oxide or Flolan may be considered in COVID Flolan is a prostaglandin can be inhaled or given IV These medications are classically used for right-sided heart failure, but may be used in COVID Causes pulmonary vasodilation to reduce the resistance against the right ventricle Complications include hypotension…
Read MoreContributor: Jared Scott, MD Educational Pearls: A press release from Merck introduced Molnupiravir for treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 The yet to be published study is a randomized control trial at around 100 different sites Reported outcomes were hospitalization and mortality from COVID and mortality from COVID Molnupiravir was found to be twice as…
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COVId-19 vaccines Introduction COVID-19 has emerged to be the most challenging pandemic faced in the 21st century. With total cases as of April 2021 at about 147 million worldwide and 32 million in the US, this virus has demanded our attention since 2019. International efforts have shifted from limiting the spread of the virus to…
Read MoreContributor: Peter Bakes, MD Educational Pearls: Incidence 2.5-10 per million people occurring primarily in those with environmental allergens Typically occurs with mRNA vaccines in lipid nanoparticles (Moderna/Pfizer) rather than the adenovirus vaccine (J&J) Recommendation is to forego 2nd dose of the mRNA vaccine and instead get the adenovirus vaccine after weighing the risks and benefits…
Read MoreContributor: Aaron Lessen, MD Educational Pearls: Survey study compared depression symptom prevalence in the United States at the beginning of COVID compared to data acquired by a similar survey for 2017-2018 and found it was three-fold higher Mild symptoms: 25% during pandemic; 16% before Moderate: 15% during pandemic; 6% before Moderately Severe symptoms: 8% during…
Read MoreContributor: Aaron Lessen, MD Educational Pearls: Ivermectin is an antiparasitic medication that has been used for a long time, but has sparked new interest in the past year as a potential treatment for COVID-19 In-vitro studies have shown it decreases how quickly COVID replicates and may make it less likely to adhere to cells Observational…
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