ECMO for COVID-19 patients in Europe and Israel

Since March 15th, 2020, 177 centres from Europe and Israel have joined the study, routinely reporting on the ECMO support they provide to COVID-19 patients. The mean annual number of cases treated with ECMO in the participating centres before the pandemic (2019) was 55. The number of COVID-19 patients has increased rapidly each week reaching 1531 treated patients as of September 14th. The greatest number of cases has been reported from France (n = 385), UK (n = 193), Germany (n = 176), Spain (n = 166), and Italy (n = 136) .The mean age of treated patients was 52.6 years (range 16–80), 79% were male. The ECMO configuration used was VV in 91% of cases, VA in 5% and other in 4%. The mean PaO2 before ECMO implantation was 65 mmHg. The mean duration of ECMO support thus far has been 18 days and the mean ICU length of stay of these patients was 33 days. As of the 14th September, overall 841 patients have been weaned from ECMO support, 601 died during ECMO support, 71 died after withdrawal of ECMO, 79 are still receiving ECMO support and for 10 patients status n.a. . Our preliminary data suggest that patients placed on ECMO with severe refractory respiratory or cardiac failure secondary to COVID-19 have a reasonable (55%) chance of survival. Further extensive data analysis is expected to provide invaluable information on the demographics, severity of illness, indications and different ECMO management strategies in these patients

Correction to: ECMO-treatment in patients with acute lung failure, cardiogenic, and septic shock: mortality and ECMO-learning curve over a 6-year period

In the original publication of this article [1], an Author’s Note section is missing in Declaration

Combined miR-486 and GP88 (Progranulin) Serum Levels Are Suggested as Supportive Biomarkers for Therapy Decision in Elderly Prostate Cancer Patients

Our study aimed to assess the applicability of miR-486 in combination with soluble GP88 protein as a diagnostic and/or predictive biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa) patients. miR-486 and GP88 levels in serum samples from 136 patients undergoing MRI-guided biopsy of the prostate were assessed by qRT–PCR and ELISA, respectively. Of these, 86 patients received a histologically confirmed diagnosis of PCa. Neither marker showed an association with the diagnosis of cancer. PCa patients were separated based on (i) treatment into patients with active surveillance or patients with any type of curative treatment and (ii) age into elderly (>68 years) patients and younger patients (≤68 years). In elderly patients (N = 41) with the intention of curative treatment at optimized cut-off values, significantly higher GP88 levels (p = 0.018) and lower miR-486 levels (p = 0.014) were observed. The total PSA level and ISUP biopsy grade were used in a baseline model for predicting definitive therapy. The baseline model exhibited an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.783 (p = 0.005). The addition of the serum biomarkers miR-486 and GP88 to the baseline model yielded an improved model with an AUC of 0.808 (p = 0.002). Altogether, combined miR-486 and GP88 serum levels are associated with and are therefore suggested as supportive biomarkers for therapy decisions, particularly in elderly PCa patients

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from ‘despotic’ to ‘tolerant’). At the individual-level, we found that dominant individuals who were more tolerant vocalized at a higher rate than their despotic counterparts. This indicates that tolerance within a relationship may place pressure on the dominant partner to communicate more during social interactions. At the species-level, however, despotic species exhibited a larger repertoire of hierarchyrelated vocalizations than their tolerant counterparts. Findings suggest primate signals are used and evolve in tandem with the nature of interactions that characterize individuals’ social relationships.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsosMammal Research Institut