Author: Frank Domino, MD in collaboration with Aylin Madore, MD

I stay up-to-date on the latest COVID-19 news and am regularly compiling a list of articles published that are relevant to your primary care practice. Read the insights below from articles published in late June in less than two minutes.

1. 1. 1. One – Commercial Laboratory Seroprevalence Survey Data

      2. View Article
      3. CDC published data from randomly tested samples collected during routine or sick care (but not related to COVID-19 illness or suspicion) found much higher rates of seroconversion than suspected.

      4. Two – CDC Updates, Expands List of People at Risk of Severe COVID-19 Illness

   1. 1. View Article
      2. The CDC has further defined age-and condition-related risks for severe COVID-19 illness; a substantial portion of Americans are at increased risk for severe illness.

      3. Three – Characteristics of Women of Reproductive Age with Laboratory-Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Pregnancy Status – United States, January 22- June 7, 2020

         View Article
         More than 40% of Latinos in the Baltimore-Washington, DC metropolitan region who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 were positive.

      4. Four – Novel Use of Home Pulse Oximetry Monitoring in COVID-19 Patients Discharged from the Emergency Department Identifies Need for Hospitalization

      5. View Article
      6. This cohort study found that home pulse oximetry monitoring identifies the need for hospitalization in initially non-severe COVID-19 patients using a cut off of SpO2 92%. 25% of patients reported having SpO2 <92%, many of which did not have worsening symptoms, implying pulse oximeter readings do not predict hypoxemia and may not be beneficial to determine severity of illness.

      7. Five – Antibody Tests for Identification of Current and Past Infection with SARS-CoV-2

      8. View Article

   The sensitivity of antibody tests is too low within the first week of symptom onset to have a primary role for diagnosis of COVID-19. Antibody tests are likely to have a useful role in detecting previous SARS-CoV-2 infection if used 15 or more days after symptom onset. Specificity was above 98%, implying a high rate of false negatives, but that a positive is highly likely to be a true positive.

1. 1. Six – Effect of Colchicine vs Standard Care of Cardiac and Inflammatory Biomarkers and Clinical Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized with Coronavirus Disease 2019

View Article
In a small randomized controlled trial of hospitalized patients, the rate of clinical deterioration was higher in the control group vs colchicine group.

Seven – Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Complications of COVID-19 in 153 patients: a UK-wide Surveillance Study

View Article
This UK cohort data of neurologic outcomes of COVID-19 infections include cerebrovascular events and mental status changes (encephalopathy, encephalitis) as commonly occurring complications.

For more insights, view our collection of COVID-19 resources and CME courses. We recognize it is critical that you have access to timely, reliable information, so we are working hard to release new content in collaboration with our team of infectious disease experts, medical specialists, and primary care clinicians like Dr. Frank Domino.