A New Natural Language Processing-Inspired Methodology (Detection, Initial Characterization, and Semantic Characterization) to Investigate Temporal Shifts (Drifts) in Health Care Data: Quantitative Study.

Background: Proper analysis and interpretation of health care data can significantly improve patient outcomes by enhancing services and revealing the impacts of new technologies and treatments. Understanding the substantial impact of temporal shifts in these data is crucial. For example, COVID-19 vaccination initially lowered the mean age of at-risk patients and later changed the characteristics of those who died.

Comprehensive statistical analysis reveals significant benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in hospitalized patients: propensity score, covariate adjustment, and feature importance by permutation.

Background: COVID-19 vaccines effectively prevent infection and hospitalization. However, few population-based studies have compared the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 using advanced statistical methods. Our objective is to address this evidence gap by comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Length of Hospitalization and Mortality among Stroke Patients before and after the Implementation of a Specialized Unit: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Real-World Data from One Reference Hospital in Southern Brazil.

Stroke constitutes a significant global cause of mortality and disability. The implementation of stroke units influences hospital quality indicators, guiding care management. We aimed to compare hospital length of stay (LOS), in-hospital mortality, and post-discharge mortality between stroke patients admitted in the pre- and post-implementation periods of a stroke unit in a public hospital in southern Brazil.

Patients hospitalized with active tuberculosis and Covid-19 coinfection: A matched case-control from the Brazilian Covid-19 Registry.

Although control of Covid-19 has improved, the virus continues to cause infections, such as tuberculosis, that is still endemic in many countries, representing a scenario of coinfection. To compare Covid-19 clinical manifestations and outcomes between patients with active tuberculosis infection and matched controls. This is a matched case-control study based on data from the Brazilian Covid-19 Registry, in hospitalized patients aged 18 or over with laboratory confirmed Covid-19 from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022.

ABCO risk score for in-hospital mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units.

Purpose: To develop a mortality risk score for COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU), and to compare it with other existing scores.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective observational study included consecutive adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to ICUs of 18 hospitals from nine Brazilian cities, from September 2021 to July 2022. Potential predictors were selected based on the literature review.

Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio as a Predictor of the Risk of Death in Severe Cases of COVID-19.

Background: Identifying clinical characteristics and risk factors, comorbid conditions, and complications arising from SARS-CoV-2 infection is important to predict the progression to more severe forms of the disease among hospitalized individuals to enable timely intervention and to prevent fatal outcomes. The aim of the study is to assess the possible role of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a biomarker of the risk of death in patients with comorbidities hospitalized with COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital in southern Brazil.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study on patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to a hospital in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre from September 2020 to March 2022.

Myocardial protection: comparing histological effects of single-dose cardioplegic solutions-study protocol for a secondary analysis of the CARDIOPLEGIA trial.

Background: Myocardial protection is crucial for successful cardiac surgery, as it prevents heart muscle damage that can occur during the procedure. Prolonged hypoxia without proper protection can lead to adenosine triphosphate consumption, microvilli loss, blister formation, and edema. Custodiol, del Nido, and modified del Nido are single-dose cardioplegic solutions with proven safety and significance in modern surgery.

Corrigendum: Assessment of risk scores to predict mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2023.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with preexisting dementia: a large multicenter propensity-matched Brazilian cohort study.

Background: Although dementia has emerged as an important risk factor for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, results on COVID-19-related complications and mortality are not consistent. We examined the clinical presentations and outcomes of COVID-19 in a multicentre cohort of in-hospital patients, comparing those with and without dementia.

Methods: This retrospective observational study comprises COVID-19 laboratory-confirmed patients aged ≥ 60 years admitted to 38 hospitals from 19 cities in Brazil.

Real-Life Data on Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine with or Without Azithromycin in COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Analysis in Brazil.

Background: Despite no evidence showing benefits of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine with or without azithromycin for COVID-19 treatment, these medications have been largely prescribed in Brazil.

Objectives: To assess outcomes, including in-hospital mortality, electrocardiographic abnormalities, hospital length-of-stay, admission to the intensive care unit, and need for dialysis and mechanical ventilation, in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, and to compare outcomes between those patients and their matched controls.

Methods: A retrospective multicenter cohort study that included consecutive laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients from 37 Brazilian hospitals from March to September 2020.

Temporal validation of the MMCD score to predict kidney replacement therapy and in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Background: Acute kidney injury has been described as a common complication in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which may lead to the need for kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in its most severe forms. Our group developed and validated the MMCD score in Brazilian COVID-19 patients to predict KRT, which showed excellent performance using data from 2020. This study aimed to validate the MMCD score in a large cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in a different pandemic phase and assess its performance to predict in-hospital mortality.

Serum of COVID-19 patients changes neuroinflammation and mitochondrial homeostasis markers in hippocampus of aged rats.

Patients affected by COVID-19 present mostly with respiratory symptoms but acute neurological symptoms are also commonly observed. Furthermore, a considerable number of individuals develop persistent and often remitting symptoms months after infection, characterizing the condition called long-COVID. Since the pathophysiology of acute and persistent neurological manifestations is not fully established, we evaluated the expression of different genes in hippocampal slices of aged rats exposed to the serum of a post-COVID (sPC) individual and to the serum of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 [Zeta (sZeta) and Gamma (sGamma) variants].

COVID-19 outcomes in people living with HIV: Peering through the waves.

Objective: To evaluate clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients infected with HIV, and to compare with a paired sample without HIV infection.

Methods: This is a substudy of a Brazilian multicentric cohort that comprised two periods (2020 and 2021). Data was obtained through the retrospective review of medical records.

Assessment of risk scores to predict mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

Objectives: To assess the ABC-SPH score in predicting COVID-19 in-hospital mortality, during intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and to compare its performance with other scores (SOFA, SAPS-3, NEWS2, 4C Mortality Score, SOARS, CURB-65, modified CHA2DS2-VASc, and a novel severity score).

Materials And Methods: Consecutive patients (≥ 18 years) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to ICUs of 25 hospitals, located in 17 Brazilian cities, from October 2020 to March 2022, were included. Overall performance of the scores was evaluated using the Brier score.

Potential and limitations of machine meta-learning (ensemble) methods for predicting COVID-19 mortality in a large inhospital Brazilian dataset.

The majority of early prediction scores and methods to predict COVID-19 mortality are bound by methodological flaws and technological limitations (e.g., the use of a single prediction model).

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospital-manifested COVID-19 among Brazilians.

Objectives: To analyze the clinical characteristics and outcomes of admitted patients with the hospital- versus community-manifested COVID-19 and to evaluate the risk factors related to mortality in the first population.

Methods: This retrospective cohort included consecutive adult patients with COVID-19, hospitalized between March and September 2020. The demographic data, clinical characteristics, and outcomes were extracted from medical records.

Mechanical ventilation and death in pregnant patients admitted for COVID-19: a prognostic analysis from the Brazilian COVID-19 registry score.

Background: The assessment of clinical prognosis of pregnant COVID-19 patients at hospital presentation is challenging, due to physiological adaptations during pregnancy. Our aim was to assess the performance of the ABC-SPH score to predict in-hospital mortality and mechanical ventilation support in pregnant patients with COVID-19, to assess the frequency of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and characteristics of pregnant women who died.

Methods: This multicenter cohort included consecutive pregnant patients with COVID-19 admitted to the participating hospitals, from April/2020 to March/2022.

Frequency and burden of neurological manifestations upon hospital presentation in COVID-19 patients: Findings from a large Brazilian cohort.

Background: Scientific data regarding the prevalence of COVID-19 neurological manifestations and prognosis in Latin America countries is still lacking. Therefore, the study aims to understand neurological manifestations of SARS-CoV 2 infection and outcomes in the Brazilian population.

Methods: This study is part of the Brazilian COVID-19 Registry, a multicentric cohort, including data from 37 hospitals.

Cohort study protocol of the Brazilian collaborative research network on COVID-19: strengthening WHO global data.

Introduction: With the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals in low-income countries were faced with a triple challenge. First, a large number of patients required hospitalisation because of the infection's more severe symptoms. Second, there was a lack of systematic and broad testing policies for early identification of cases.

Hospital characteristics associated with COVID-19 mortality: data from the multicenter cohort Brazilian Registry.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented pressure over health care systems worldwide. Hospital-level data that may influence the prognosis in COVID-19 patients still needs to be better investigated. Therefore, this study analyzed regional socioeconomic, hospital, and intensive care units (ICU) characteristics associated with in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients admitted to Brazilian institutions.

Neurological manifestations by sex and age group in COVID-19 inhospital patients.

Introduction: Neurological manifestations have been associated with a poorer prognosis in COVID-19. However, data regarding their incidence according to sex and age groups is still lacking.

Methods: This retrospective multicentric cohort collected data from 39 Brazilian hospitals from 17 cities, from adult COVID-19 admitted from March 2020 to January 2022.

Predictors of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients: results of the COVID-19 Brazilian Registry.

Previous studies that assessed risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in COVID-19 patients have shown inconsistent results. Our aim was to investigate VTE predictors by both logistic regression (LR) and machine learning (ML) approaches, due to their potential complementarity. This cohort study of a large Brazilian COVID-19 Registry included 4120 COVID-19 adult patients from 16 hospitals.