September 17, 2020

On today's episode we discuss: —Epidemiology: A multicenter study of 286 patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infections, 94.3% of whom were on antiretroviral therapy (88.7% with HIV viral suppression and 80.8% with comorbidities) found that the presence of comorbidities and lower CD4 counts (200 cells/mm-cubed) were significantly correlated with poorer outcomes including higher hospitalization rates, higher ICU admission rates, and reduced overall survival, whereas there was no correlation of outcomes to antiretroviral regimen or lack of viral suppression. —Adjusting Practice During COVID-19: A retrospective cross-sectional study of emergency physicians (EPs; n=32) at Monash Medical Center in Australia found physician productivity (defined as number of patients examined per hour) decreased by 48.5% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to historical performances, which authors attribute to increased workload from COVID-19 preparation. Researchers suggest new technical and adaptive challenges during the pandemic calls for strong role modeling and leadership to address complexities encountered by EPs and other healthcare providers. —R&D: Diagnosis & Treatments: A retrospective propensity score-matched case-control study at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York investigated the effects of convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) in 39 patients with severe or life-threatening COVID-19 infection and found that by day 14 post-transplant, O2 requirements worsened in only 17.9% of CPT recipients when compared to 28.2% of propensity score-matched controls (potentially confounded by therapeutic anticoagulant use in the transplant cohort), in addition to statistically significant improved survival in plasma recipients when compared to controls.