PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-28

Association of Red Blood Cell Distribution Width With Mortality Risk in Hospitalized Adults With SARS-CoV-2 Infection

A standard test that assesses variations in red blood cell volume can identify hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who are at elevated risk of becoming critically ill and succumbing to the disease, according to newly published research led by a team of Harvard Medical School investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Systems Biology. The findings, described in JAMA Network

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-28

This week’s Offline column by The Lancet Editor-in-Chief defines Covid-19 Syndemic not Pandemic.

Two categories of disease are interacting within specific populations—infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and an array of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These conditions are clustering within social groups according to patterns of inequality deeply embedded in our societies. The aggregation of these diseases on a background of social and economic disparity exacerbates

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-27

A multicenter cardiovascular pathology study shows various features of COVID-19-associated myocardial injury

Early in the pandemic, other clinicians noted that even some patients who didn’t have preexisting heart conditions experienced cardiovascular damage while fighting COVID-19 infections, pointing to a possible causative link. Researchers had found, for example, that 8–12 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had elevated levels of muscle contraction–regulating proteins called troponins—a sign of heart damage—and that these

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-27

Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of COVID-19: Perspectives of the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel

Currently, no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapeutics exist for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this context, the pandemic has put considerable pressure on health care providers to prescribe treatments despite limited information about their safety and efficacy. This pressure has exacerbated the tension between the importance of practicing evidence-based medicine and the urgency of

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-26

Scientists discover 13,5% cases of severe Covid-19 present genetic and immunologic underpinnings inducing type I Interferon lacking

New findings by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators help explain why some people with COVID-19 develop severe disease. The findings also may provide the first molecular explanation for why more men than women die from COVID-19. The researchers found that more than 10% of people who develop severe COVID-19 have

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-26

Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adolescents Compared With Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Children were less likely than adults to acquire a COVID-19 infection from an index case, a meta-analysis found. Across 32 contact tracing or population testing studies comparing SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in children and adults, children younger than 14 were less likely to be infected from an index case overall (odds ratio 0.56, 95% CI 0.37-0.85), and

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-25

Gastrointestinal Complications in Critically Ill Patients With and Without COVID-19

COVID-19 appears to have significant extrapulmonary complications affecting multiple organ systems. Critically ill patients with COVID-19 oftendevelop gastrointestinal complications during their hospital stay, including bowel ischemia, transaminitis, gastrointestinal bleeding, pancreatitis, Ogilvie syndrome, and severe ileus. Whether the high incidence of gastrointestinal complications is a manifestation of critical illness in general or is specific to COVID-19

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-23

Toward an Optimized Process for Clinical Manufacturing of CAR-Treg Cell Therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology and its application to regulatory T cells (Tregs) has garnered interest among researchers in the field of cell and gene therapy. Merging the benefits of CAR technology with Tregs offers a novel and promising therapeutic option for durable reshaping of undesired immune responses following solid organ or hematopoietic stem cell

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-09-23

NIH, receiving $48 million in support through Operation Warp Speed (OWS), expands clinical trials to test convalescent plasma against COVID-19

Rigorous studies to build on earlier efforts to test the experimental treatment Source NIH Two randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are expanding enrollment to further evaluate convalescent plasma as a treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Preliminary observational studies indicate that convalescent plasma may improve outcomes among severely

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