Covichem: A biochemical severity risk score of COVID-19 upon hospital admission

Clinical and laboratory predictors of COVID-19 severity are now well described and combined to propose mortality or severity scores. However, they all necessitate saturable equipment such as scanners, or procedures difficult to implement such as blood gas measures. To provide an easy and fast COVID-19 severity risk score upon hospital admission, and keeping in mind the above limits, we sought for a scoring system needing limited invasive data such as a simple blood test and co-morbidity assessment by anamnesis. A retrospective study of 303 patients (203 from Bordeaux University hospital and an external independent cohort of 100 patients from Paris Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital) collected clinical and biochemical parameters at admission. Using stepwise model selection by Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), we built the severity score Covichem. Among 26 tested variables, 7: obesity, cardiovascular conditions, plasma sodium, albumin, ferritin, LDH and CK were the independent predictors of severity used in Covichem (accuracy 0.87, AUROC 0.91). Accuracy was 0.92 in the external validation cohort (89% sensitivity and 95% specificity). Covichem score could be useful as a rapid, costless and easy to implement severity assessment tool during acute COVID-19 pandemic waves

Pigments test strips: A rapid companion test to exclude sub-arachnoid haemorrhage

OBJECTIVES: Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is characterised by 25% of mortality or induces long-term care. It needs immediate diagnosis with computed tomography (CT) scan. For the inconclusive CT scans, the detection of haem pigments can be performed in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The reference method is spectrophotometry but it requires a large volume of CSF, and specific equipment. Sometimes, urine test strips are used as an alternative method for haem pigments detection. However, this method needs validation in SAH context. The aim of the study was to compare the performance of Multistix® urine test strips for haem pigments detection to the reference spectrophotometry and the final clinical SAH diagnosis. METHODS: We collected 136 CSFs sampled for suspected SAH. We detected haem pigments with urine test strips and spectrophotometry and compared performances for 100 samples. RESULTS: Urine tests strips displayed a high sensitivity (0.97) as compared to the reference spectrophotometry for haem pigments detection. Interestingly, absence of haem pigments fully correlated with absence of SAH. CONCLUSIONS: Negative Multistix® urine test strips could help to exclude SAH diagnosis in combination with clinical data when a spectrophotometer is not available, or as a bedside diagnosis test

Novel risk factors for premature peripheral arterial occlusive disease in non-diabetic patients: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of genetic and environmental vascular risk factors in non diabetic patients with premature peripheral arterial disease, either peripheral arterial occlusive disease or thromboangiitis obliterans, the two main entities of peripheral arterial disease, and to established whether some of them are specifically associated with one or another of the premature peripheral arterial disease subgroups. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study included 113 non diabetic patients with premature peripheral arterial disease (diagnosis <45-year old) presenting either a peripheral arterial occlusive disease (N = 64) or a thromboangiitis obliterans (N = 49), and 241 controls matched for age and gender. Both patient groups demonstrated common traits including cigarette smoking, low physical activity, decreased levels of HDL-cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (active form of B6 vitamin) and zinc. Premature peripheral arterial occlusive disease was characterized by the presence of a family history of peripheral arterial and carotid artery diseases (OR 2.3 and 5.8 respectively, 95% CI), high lipoprotein (a) levels above 300 mg/L (OR 2.3, 95% CI), the presence of the factor V Leiden (OR 5.1, 95% CI) and the glycoprotein Ia(807T,837T,873A) allele (OR 2.3, 95% CI). In thromboangiitis obliterans group, more patients were regular consumers of cannabis (OR 3.5, 95% CI) and higher levels in plasma copper has been shown (OR 6.5, 95% CI). CONCLUSIONS: According to our results from a non exhaustive list of study parameters, we might hypothesize for 1) a genetic basis for premature peripheral arterial occlusive disease development and 2) the prevalence of environmental factors in the development of thromboangiitis obliterans (tobacco and cannabis). Moreover, for the first time, we demonstrated that the 807T/837T/873A allele of platelet glycoprotein Ia may confer an additional risk for development of peripheral atherosclerosis in premature peripheral arterial occlusive disease

PCR analysis of genomic DNA encoding the glycoprotein Ia gene surrounding the 807, 837 and 873 polymorphisms.

<p><i>(A)</i> Amplified products (1332 bp) were resolved by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and stained with ethidium bromide. Lane 1: molecular weight marker; lane 2: blank; lanes 3 to 11: different genotyped individuals. <i>(B)</i> Analysis of <i>ITGA2^{807C/T, 837C/T, 873 G/A}</i> polymorphisms by PCR-RFLP using <i>Bgl II</i> and <i>Asn I</i> endonucleases on 1.5% agarose gel. Lane 7: molecular weight marker; other lanes: different genotypes according to reference 29 (lanes 1, 4, 5: 2/2, lanes 2, 3, 6: 1/2, lane 7: 1/3, lane 8: 2/3, lane 9: 1/1).</p

Clinical Characteristics of the Study Sample.

<p>Results as mean ± SD; ns: no significant different when p>0.05.</p><p>(PPAD, premature peripheral arterial diseases; PAOD, peripheral arterial occlusive disease; TAO, thromboangiitis obliterans).</p

Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the Study Sample.

<p> <b>Results as mean ± SD; ns: no significant different when p>0.05.</b></p>*<p>THC: tetrahydrocannabinol, † Lp(a): lipoprotein(a), ‡ hsCRP: ultrasensible C-reactive protein.</p><p>(PPAD, premature peripheral arterial diseases; PAOD, peripheral arterial occlusive disease; TAO, thromboangiitis obliterans).</p

Risk Factors for PAOD Patients and TAO.

*<p>p<0.001, †p<0.01, ‡ p<0.05, ns: no significant different when p>0.05.</p><p>(PAOD, peripheral arterial occlusive disease; TAO, thromboangiitis obliterans).</p