Covid-19 triage in the emergency department 2.0: how analytics and AI transform a human-made algorithm for the prediction of clinical pathways

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many hospitals to their capacity limits. Therefore, a triage of patients has been discussed controversially primarily through an ethical perspective. The term triage contains many aspects such as urgency of treatment, severity of the disease and pre-existing conditions, access to critical care, or the classification of patients regarding subsequent clinical pathways starting from the emergency department. The determination of the pathways is important not only for patient care, but also for capacity planning in hospitals. We examine the performance of a human-made triage algorithm for clinical pathways which is considered a guideline for emergency departments in Germany based on a large multicenter dataset with over 4,000 European Covid-19 patients from the LEOSS registry. We find an accuracy of 28 percent and approximately 15 percent sensitivity for the ward class. The results serve as a benchmark for our extensions including an additional category of palliative care as a new label, analytics, AI, XAI, and interactive techniques. We find significant potential of analytics and AI in Covid-19 triage regarding accuracy, sensitivity, and other performance metrics whilst our interactive human-AI algorithm shows superior performance with approximately 73 percent accuracy and up to 76 percent sensitivity. The results are independent of the data preparation process regarding the imputation of missing values or grouping of comorbidities. In addition, we find that the consideration of an additional label palliative care does not improve the results

Semifluorinated Alkane Eye Drops in Chronic Ocular Graft-versus-Host Disease: A Prospective, Multicenter, Noninterventional Study

Purpose: Ocular graft-versus-host disease (oGvHD) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation develops as severe dry eye disease (DED) and is initially treated with lubricants, although no clinical trials are available using artificial tears in oGvHD. This trial was set up to test perfluorohexyloctane (NovaTears (R)) as nonpreserved layer-forming agent for the treatment of DED in oGvHD. Methods: 25 patients with severe DED due to oGvHD received 1 drop perfluorohexyloctane 4 times daily during a prospective, multicenter, observational 12-week study on top of established topical therapy. Clinical parameters included Schirmer test, tear film breakup time, corneal staining, meibum secretion and ocular surface disease index. Adverse events, visual acuity and intraocular pressure were key safety parameters. Results: From 25 patients recruited, 23 presented for the second visit. Perfluorohexyloctane treatment did not lead to any changes in clinical or safety parameters but led to fast relief in symptoms in 57% of the patients. One adverse reaction occurred. Conclusions: This study showed no change in clinical signs in severe DED due to oGvHD, which was not unexpected due to the underlying pathomechanisms. However, the study showed improvement of symptoms in individual patients allowing application of perfluorohexyloctane as an additional symptomatic therapy in oGvHD. (C) 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel

Long-term follow-up after scleral lens fixation in patients with Marfan syndrome

Abstract Background The dislocation of the crystalline lens is a common finding in patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS). Scleral intraocular lens (IOL) fixation is an accepted treatment method of this complication. To now, no long-term data on scleral IOL fixation in MFS exist. Methods We present a retrospective study of 27 eyes of 17 MFS patients that underwent scleral lens fixation at our clinic between 1999 and 2012. These patients are compared to an age- and surgeon-matched group of 31 eyes of 27 patients who underwent the same procedure for reasons other than MFS. Results The median age in the MFS group was 35.4 years versus 35.6 years in the non-MFS group. The median follow-up was 4 years for MFS and 3 years for non-MFS. In the MFS group, significantly more IOL-dislocations occurred than compared to the non-MFS group (30% vs. 6.5%, p = 0.02). Retinal detachment occurred in four MFS-eyes compared to three eyes in the non-MFS group. Biometry prediction error was 1.11 diopters (D) for MFS and 1.33 D for non-MFS (p = 0.11). Median BCVA (best-corrected visual acuity, logMAR) was 0.1 in the MFS group versus 0.3 in non-MFS patients. Conclusion Scleral lens fixation in MFS patients achieves satisfying visual and refractive outcomes. Our data shows a significantly higher rate of IOL dislocations in patients with MFS. We therefore recommend addressing this complication preoperatively

Short-term azithromycin treatment promotes cornea allograft survival in the rat.

Any inflammatory response following corneal transplantation may induce rejection and irreversible graft failure. The purpose of this study is to analyze the anti-inflammatory effect of azithromycin (AZM) following experimental keratoplasty in rats.Corneal transplants were performed between Fisher-donor and Lewis-recipient rats. Recipients were postoperatively treated three times daily with AZM, miglyol, ofloxacin or dexamethasone eye drops. As an additional control, AZM was applied following syngeneic keratoplasty. Furthermore, short-term treatments with AZM for seven days perioperatively or with AZM only three days prior to the transplantation were compared to appropriate controls. All transplants were monitored clinically for opacity, edema, and vascularization. Infiltrating CD45(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD25(+), CD161(+) and CD163(+) cells were quantified via immunohistochemistry.AZM significantly promoted corneal graft survival compared with miglyol or ofloxacin treatment. This effect was comparable to topical dexamethasone. No adverse AZM effect was observed. Histology confirmed a significant reduction of infiltrating leukocytes. The short-term application of AZM for three days prior to transplantation or for seven days perioperatively reduced corneal graft rejection significantly compared with the controls.Along with antibiotic properties, topical AZM has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Following keratoplasty, this effect is comparable to topical dexamethasone without the risk of steroid-induced adverse effects. Short-term treatment with AZM three days prior to the transplantation was sufficient to promote graft survival in the rat keratoplasty model. We therefore suggest further assessing the anti-inflammatory function of topical AZM following keratoplasty in humans

Outcomes and complications of cataract surgery in patients with chronic ocular graft-versus-host-disease-a multicenter, retrospective analysis

Purpose To evaluate the outcome of phacoemulsification in patients with chronic ocular Graft-versus-host disease (oGVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT). Methods Retrospective, observational multicenter study from 1507 oGVHD patients. From the patient files, data were collected including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), Schirmer's test I, tear film break-up time (TFBUT), corneal fluorescein staining score, postoperative complications, and pre- and post-operative topical therapy. Results Seventy-three patients underwent cataract surgery in 104 eyes. In n = 84 eyes, the oGVHD NIH grade was documented; 12% (n= 12) of analyzed eyes were staged oGVHD NIH grade 1, 31% (n= 32) NIH 2 and 39% (n = 41) NIH 3. The mean BCVA improved in 82% of the eyes (n = 86 eyes). BCVA significantly increased from 0.7 +/- 0.5 to 0.4 +/- 0.4 LogMAR after surgery independent from oGVHD severity. The mean IOP decreased from 14 +/- 4 to 13 +/- 4 mmHg after surgery. Visual acuity was moderately correlated to the pre-operative degree of corneal staining (Pearson p = 0.26, p = 0.002, Cohen's effect size f= 0.29). The visual acuity decreased by 0.078 LogMar units (95% CI =0.027-0.141) with each increase of corneal staining by one grade (p = 0.05). After surgery, corneal epitheliopathy increased significantly in 42% (n = 44) of the eyes. Postoperative complications included corneal perforation (n = 6, 6%), cystoid macular edema (n = 4, 4%), and endophthalmitis (n =1 , 1%) . Conclusion Phacoemulsification in patients with chronic oGVHD significantly improves visual acuity, but is associated with an increased risk of complications in particular corneal epitheliopathy and corneal perforations

Additional file 1: of Long-term follow-up after scleral lens fixation in patients with Marfan syndrome

The original data from which all analyses were performed. (XLSX 22 kb

Are Entry Criteria for Cataract Surgery Justified?

<div><p>Purpose</p><p>The German Ophthalmological Society (GOS) recently proposed surgical entry criteria, i.e. 300 cataract surgeries. We herein correlate the surgical hands-on experience with the risk of posterior capsule ruptures in order to assess whether this number is appropriate.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We identified all cataract operations that had been performed at the University Eye Hospital Freiburg since 1995. For each surgeon, we assigned a running number to his/her procedures in the order they had been performed. Thereafter, we excluded all combined procedures and the second eyes. We then selected the 5475 surgical reports between November 2008 and November 2012 for detailed review. We additionally classified each surgery into low- vs. high- à priori risk for posterior capsule ruptures. We fitted a multifactorial logistic regression model to assess the GOS recommendation of 300 surgeries under supervision. In the low-risk group, we additionally visualized the 'typical' learning curve by plotting the posterior capsule ruptures against the respective rank numbers.</p><p>Results</p><p>The odds ratio for posterior capsule ruptures of 'learning-mode' (one of the respective surgeon's 300 first procedures) vs. the non-learning-mode was 3.8 (p<0.0001). By contrast, classification into the low-risk group lowered the risk of posterior capsule ruptures three fold (p<0.0001). According to the low-risk plot, the surgeons started with a complication rate of 4% and continuously improved towards 0.5% after 1500 operations. Thereafter, the rate increased again and stabilized around one percent.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The learning curve with respect to posterior capsule ruptures is surprisingly flat. The GOS entry criterion of 300 cataract procedures is therefore most likely justified. Careful selection of low-risk patients for the training surgeons may help in reducing the rate of posterior capsule ruptures during training.</p></div