Air pollution in relation to manifestations of chronic pulmonary disease: A nested case–control study in Athens, Greece

UNSTRUCTURED Objective: To investigate the association of the non-communicable chronic disease (NCD) with the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: A case-control study was conducted. The cases were laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were treated in the Union Hospital in Wuhan. The healthy controls were randomly selected from the participants of the Hunan Government Employee Cohort study who were not infected with COVID-19, matching by age and sex. NCDs including hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic pulmonary disease, and cancer were determined by self-reportings, use of medications, measurements, and/or laboratory testings. The severity of COVID-19 was determined by physicians according to the guideline. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association, in terms of odds ratio (OR). Results: A total of 468 cases and 1404 controls (1:3) were included in the analysis with a mean age of 59.1±12.8 years and 51.7% male. The case group comprised 134 moderately ill, 275 severely ill, and 59 critically ill COVID-19 patients. Patients with diabetes (OR=3.23, P<0.001), chronic pulmonary disease (OR=5.99, P<0.001), and hypertension (OR=1.45, P=0.001) showed a significantly increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared to the healthy controls. Additionally, diabetes, chronic pulmonary disease, hypertension, and the number of comorbid NCDs were associated with the severity of COVID-19 dose-dependently. Conclusions: Patients with diabetes, hypertension, and chronic pulmonary disease are at a higher risk of having COVID-19 and developing severe type of the disease.

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Risk Factors for Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacterales Infection or Colonization in a Korean Intensive Care Unit: A Case–Control Study

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics9100680 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 680

Author(s):

Young Ah Kim ◽

Se Ju Lee ◽

Yoon Soo Park ◽

Yeo Jin Lee ◽

Jeong Hwa Yeon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Klebsiella Pneumoniae ◽

Pulmonary Disease ◽

Case Control Study ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Case Control ◽

Chronic Pulmonary Disease ◽

Control Study

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors related to the infection and/or colonization of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) based on clinical and microbiological data for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). All patients admitted to medical ICU were screened for CPE on admission and weekly, and this 1:2 case–control study included patients with CPE identified by screening or clinical cultures from 2017 to 2018. The clonal relatedness was evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A total of 45 CPE patients were identified with a prevalence of 3.8%. The most frequent organism was Klebsiella pneumoniae (69%) and the carbapenemases belonged to the class A Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase (KPC-2) (87%), class B New Delhi Metallo-β-lactamase (NDM) (11%), and Imipenemase (IMP-1) (2%) strains. The PFGE profiles showed two large clustered groups of KPC-2-producing K. pneumoniae. In the multivariate analysis, pneumonia/chronic pulmonary disease, previous fluoroquinolone use, and previous use of nasogastric tube were the significant risk factors for CPE infection or colonization in ICU-admitted patients. Critical illness and underlying medical conditions such as pneumonia/chronic pulmonary disease, antimicrobial selective pressure, and the use of a medical device are identified as risk factors for CPE infection or colonization in ICU. Person to person transmission also contributed.

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