Complicated scarring following mpox infection

International audienceWe describe two patterns of complicated scarring following mpox lesions. The first was hypertrophic scarring of facial lesions in two patients and the second was a scarring folliculitis on peribuccal lesions in two patients. The combination of deep dermic inflammation, local superinfection and scratching may have led to these aesthetic complications

Impact and Tolerance of Immunosuppressive Treatments in Patients Living with HIV with Inflammatory or Autoimmune Diseases

Background: Patients living with HIV (PLWHIV) can develop autoimmune diseases (AD) needing immunosuppressive treatments (IST). This study aims to describe the impact of IST in PLWHIV. Methods: This was a multicentric retrospective observational study in six HIV referral centers on PLWHIV under IST for AD. Demographic factors, viral co-infections, immunovirological status before and under IST, infectious events, and their descriptions were collected and described focusing on infectious events, immunovirological variations, and IST effectiveness. Results: 9480 PLWHIV were screened for inclusion. Among them, 138 (1.5%) had a history of auto-immune disease, among which 32 (23%) received IST. There was mainly spondyloarthropathy (28%) and the most commonly used IST was methotrexate. The median follow-up under IST was 3.8 years (2.7; 5.9). There were 15 infectious events (0.5 events/individuals) concerning nine patients. At the last medical follow-up, 81% of these were in remission of their AD. Under IST, there was an increase in CD4 during follow-up (629 vs. 827 CD4/mm3, p = 0.04). No HIV virological failure was noted. Conclusions: This study supports a growing evidence base that IST can be used safely and effectively in PLWHIV with careful monitoring

SARS-COV2 infection in 30 HIV-infected patients followed-up in a French University Hospital

International audienceIntroduction: An acute respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARSCOV2) is spreading from China since January 2020. Surprisingly, few cases of Covid-19 have been reported in people living with HIV (PLWHIV).Methods: Here we present a series of 30 PLWHIV diagnosed for SARS-COV2 infection. The principal outcome was to describe clinical characteristics of this population.Results: Eighteen (60%) patients were men, 10/30 (33,3%) women and 2/30 (6,7%) transgender women. Median age was 53,7 years (range 30-80 years) and 23/30 patients (76,7%) were born in a foreign country (out of France). The most common comorbidities were cardiovascular disease (11/30, 36,7%), hypertension (11/30, 36,7%), diabetes (9/30,30%) obesity (7/30, 23%) and chronic renal disease (5/30, 16,7%). Twenty (66,7%) patients presented overweight. Five patients (16,7%) had a Charlson comorbidity (Quan et al., 2011) score ≥3. Twenty-seven (90%) patients were virologically suppressed.CD4 count was >500cell/mm 3 in 23/30 (76,6%) patients. An antiviral treatment for SARS-COV2 was administered, in addition to HIV treatment, in 5/30 patients (16,3%). Twenty-four patients (80%) recovered from covid-19, 3/30 (10%) required invasive mechanical ventilation, 2/30 (6,7%) patients died and 4/30 (13,3%) patients were still hospitalized.Conclusions: Most of the patients were virologically suppressed with CD4>500 mm3. Risk factors were the same as those described in other SARS-COV2 series, suggesting that HIV infection is probably not an independent risk factor for covid-19

Chronic use of Renin‐Angiotensin‐Aldosterone‐System blockers and mortality in COVID‐19: a multicenter prospective cohort and literature review

International audienceAims: The role of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) blockers on the course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is debated. We assessed the association between chronic use of RAAS blockers and mortality among inpatients with COVID-19, and explored reasons for discrepancies in the literature.Methods and results: We included adult hypertensive patients from a prospective nationwide cohort of 3512 inpatients with COVID-19 up to June 30, 2020. Cox proportional hazard models with various adjustment or propensity weighting methods were used to estimate the Hazard Ratios (HR) of 30-day mortality for chronic users versus non-users of RAAS blockers. We analyzed data of 1160 hypertensive patients; 719 (62%) were male, 777 (67%) were older than 65 years. The main comorbidities were diabetes (n=416, 36%), chronic cardiac disease (n=401, 35%) and obesity (n=340, 29%); 705 (61%) received oxygen therapy. We recorded 135 (11.6%) deaths within 30 days of diagnosis. We found no association between chronic use of RAAS blockers and mortality (unadjusted HR=1.13, 95% CI [0.8-1.6]; propensity inverse probability treatment weighted HR=1.09 [0.86-1.39]; propensity standardized mortality ratio weighted HR=1.08 [0.79-1.47]). Our comprehensive review of previous studies highlighted that significant associations were mostly found in unrestricted populations with inappropriate adjustment, or with biased in-hospital exposure measurement.Conclusion: Our results do not support previous concerns regarding these drugs, nor a potential protective effect as reported in previous poorly designed studies and metanalyses. RAAS blockers should not be discontinued during the pandemic, while in-hospital management of these drugs will be clarified by randomized trials. NCT04262921

Erythematous maculopapular rash in monkeypox virus infection: A retrospective case series of 30 patients

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Factors Associated with Treatment Failure in Moderately Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

International audienceImportance: Failure of treatment is the most serious complication in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Objective: To assess the potential risk factors for treatment failure in clinically stable patients with CAP. Design, Setting, and Participants: This secondary analysis assesses data from a randomized clinical trial on CAP (Pneumonia Short Treatment [PTC] trial) conducted from December 19, 2013, to February 1, 2018. Data analysis was performed from July 18, 2019, to February 15, 2020. Patients hospitalized at 1 of 16 centers in France for moderately severe CAP who were clinically stable at day 3 of antibiotic treatment were included in the PTC trial and analyzed in the per-protocol trial population. Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) on day 3 of antibiotic treatment to receive β-lactam (amoxicillin-clavulanate [1 g/125 mg] 3 times daily) or placebo for 5 extra days. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was failure at 15 days after first antibiotic intake, defined as a temperature greater than 37.9 °C and/or absence of resolution or improvement of respiratory symptoms and/or additional antibiotic treatment for any cause. The association among demographic characteristics, baseline clinical and biological variables available (ie, at the first day of β-lactam treatment), and treatment failure at day 15 among the per-protocol trial population was assessed by univariate and multivariable logistic regressions. Results: Overall, 310 patients were included in the study; this secondary analysis comprised 291 patients (174 [59.8%] male; mean [SD] age, 69.6 [18.5] years). The failure rate was 26.8%. Male sex (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; 95% CI, 1.01-3.07), age per year (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.05), Pneumonia Severe Index score (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.02), the presence of chronic lung disease (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.03-3.30), and creatinine clearance (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-1.00) were significantly associated with failure in the univariate analysis. When the Pneumonia Severe Index score was excluded to avoid collinearity with age and sex in the regression model, only male sex (OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.08-3.49) and age (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.00-1.05) were associated with failure in the multivariable analysis. Conclusions and Relevance: In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, among patients with CAP who reached clinical stability after 3 days of antibiotic treatment, only male sex and age were associated with higher risk of failure, independent of antibiotic treatment duration and biomarker levels. Another randomized clinical trial is needed to evaluate the impact of treatment duration in populations at higher risk for treatment failure

Predictive usefulness of RT-PCR testing in different patterns of Covid-19 symptomatology: analysis of a French cohort of 12,810 outpatients

International audienceReverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a key tool to diagnose Covid-19. Yet it may not be the most efficient test in all patients. In this paper, we develop a clinical strategy for prescribing RT-PCR to patients based on data from COVIDOM, a French cohort of 54,000 patients with clinically suspected Covid-19, including 12,810 patients tested by RT-PCR. We use a machine-learning algorithm (decision tree) in order to predict RT-PCR results based on the clinical presentation. We show that symptoms alone are sufficient to predict RT-PCR outcome with a mean average precision of 86%. We identify combinations of symptoms that are predictive of RT-PCR positivity (90% for anosmia/ageusia) or negativity (only 30% of RT-PCR+\,for a subgroup with cardiopulmonary symptoms): in both cases, RT-PCR provides little added diagnostic value. We propose a prescribing strategy based on clinical presentation that can improve the global efficiency of RT-PCR testing

Increased risk of severe COVID-19 in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant infection: a multicentre matched cohort study

International audienceBackground: The impact of the variant of concern (VOC) Alpha on the severity of COVID-19 has been debated. We report our analysis in France.Methods: We conducted an exposed/unexposed cohort study with retrospective data collection, comparing patients infected by VOC Alpha to contemporaneous patients infected by historical lineages. Participants were matched on age (± 2.5 years), sex and region of hospitalization. The primary endpoint was the proportion of hospitalized participants with severe COVID-19, defined as a WHO-scale > 5 or by the need of a non-rebreather mask, occurring up to day 29 after admission. We used a logistic regression model stratified on each matched pair and accounting for factors known to be associated with the severity of the disease.Results: We included 650 pairs of patients hospitalized between Jan 1, 2021, and Feb 28, 2021, in 47 hospitals. Median age was 70 years and 61.3% of participants were male. The proportion of participants with comorbidities was high in both groups (85.0% vs 90%, p = 0.004). Infection by VOC Alpha was associated with a higher odds of severe COVID-19 (41.7% vs 38.5%-aOR = 1.33 95% CI [1.03-1.72]).Conclusion: Infection by the VOC Alpha was associated with a higher odds of severe COVID-19