Postacute sequelae of COVID-19 at 2 years.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can lead to postacute sequelae in multiple organ systems, but evidence is mostly limited to the first year postinfection. We built a cohort of 138,818 individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection and 5,985,227 noninfected control group from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and followed them for 2 years to estimate the risks of death and 80 prespecified postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) according to care setting during the acute phase of infection. The increased risk of death was not significant beyond 6 months after infection among nonhospitalized but remained significantly elevated through the 2 years in hospitalized individuals.

Comparative effectiveness of SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, DPP-4 inhibitors, and sulfonylureas on risk of major adverse cardiovascular events: emulation of a randomised target trial using electronic health records.

Background: Randomised clinical trials showed that compared with placebo, SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists reduced risk of adverse cardiovascular events. The evidence base for the older antihyperglycaemic drug classes (DPP-4 inhibitors and sulfonylureas) is generally less well developed. Because most randomised trials evaluated one antihyperglycaemic medication versus placebo, a head-to-head comparative effectiveness analysis of the newer drug classes (SGLT2 inhibitors vs GLP-1 receptor agonists) or newer (SGLT2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists) versus older (DPP-4 inhibitors or sulfonylureas) drug classes on risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) is not available.

Nirmatrelvir and risk of hospital admission or death in adults with covid-19: emulation of a randomized target trial using electronic health records.

Objective: To estimate the effectiveness of nirmatrelvir, compared with no treatment, in reducing admission to hospital or death at 30 days in people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and at risk of developing severe disease, according to vaccination status and history of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Design: Emulation of a randomized target trial with electronic health records.

Setting: Healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs PARTICIPANTS: 256 288 participants with a SARS-CoV-2 positive test result and at least one risk factor for developing severe covid-19 disease, between 3 January and 30 November 2022.

Molnupiravir and risk of hospital admission or death in adults with covid-19: emulation of a randomized target trial using electronic health records.

Objective: To emulate a randomized target trial to estimate the association between the antiviral drug molnupiravir and hospital admission or death in adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community during the omicron predominant era who were at high risk of progression to severe covid-19.

Design: Emulation of a randomized target trial using electronic health records.

Setting: US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Acute Pancreatitis Recurrences Augment Long-Term Pancreatic Cancer Risk.

Introduction: In animal models, inflammation caused by experimental acute pancreatitis (AP) promotes pancreatic carcinogenesis that is preventable by suppressing inflammation. Recent studies noted higher long-term risk of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after AP. In this study, we evaluated whether the long-term PDAC risk after AP was influenced by the etiology of AP, number of recurrences, and if it was because of progression to chronic pancreatitis (CP).

Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection.

First infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with increased risk of acute and postacute death and sequelae in various organ systems. Whether reinfection adds to risks incurred after first infection is unclear. Here we used the US Department of Veterans Affairs' national healthcare database to build a cohort of individuals with one SARS-CoV-2 infection (n = 443,588), reinfection (two or more infections, n = 40,947) and a noninfected control (n = 5,334,729).

Long COVID after breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The post-acute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-also referred to as Long COVID-have been described, but whether breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection (BTI) in vaccinated people results in post-acute sequelae is not clear. In this study, we used the US Department of Veterans Affairs national healthcare databases to build a cohort of 33,940 individuals with BTI and several controls of people without evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including contemporary (n = 4,983,491), historical (n = 5,785,273) and vaccinated (n = 2,566,369) controls. At 6 months after infection, we show that, beyond the first 30 days of illness, compared to contemporary controls, people with BTI exhibited a higher risk of death (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.

Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19.

The cardiovascular complications of acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well described, but the post-acute cardiovascular manifestations of COVID-19 have not yet been comprehensively characterized. Here we used national healthcare databases from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to build a cohort of 153,760 individuals with COVID-19, as well as two sets of control cohorts with 5,637,647 (contemporary controls) and 5,859,411 (historical controls) individuals, to estimate risks and 1-year burdens of a set of pre-specified incident cardiovascular outcomes. We show that, beyond the first 30 d after infection, individuals with COVID-19 are at increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease spanning several categories, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease.

A Deep Learning Approach for the Estimation of Glomerular Filtration Rate.

An accurate estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is clinically crucial for kidney disease diagnosis and predicting the prognosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Machine learning methodologies such as deep neural networks provide a potential avenue for increasing accuracy in GFR estimation. We developed a novel deep learning architecture, a deep and shallow neural network, to estimate GFR (dlGFR for short) and examined its comparative performance with estimated GFR from Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations.

Burdens of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 by severity of acute infection, demographics and health status.

The Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) have been characterized; however, the burden of PASC remains unknown. Here we used the healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to build a cohort of 181,384 people with COVID-19 and 4,397,509 non-infected controls and estimated that burden of PASC-defined as the presence of at least one sequela in excess of non-infected controls-was 73.43 (72.

Association of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution With Kidney Transplant Outcomes.

Importance: Increased levels of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution are associated with increased risks for detrimental health outcomes, but risks for patients with kidney transplants (KTs) remain unknown.

Objective: To investigate the association of PM2.

Kidney Outcomes in Long COVID.

Background: COVID-19 is associated with increased risk of post-acute sequelae involving pulmonary and extrapulmonary organ systems-referred to as long COVID. However, a detailed assessment of kidney outcomes in long COVID is not yet available.

Methods: We built a cohort of 1,726,683 US Veterans identified from March 1, 2020 to March 15, 2021, including 89,216 patients who were 30-day survivors of COVID-19 and 1,637,467 non-infected controls.

Temporal trends of COVID-19 mortality and hospitalisation rates: an observational cohort study from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Objectives: To investigate the temporal trends of 30-day mortality and hospitalisation in US Veterans with COVID-19 and 30-day mortality in hospitalised veterans with COVID-19 and to decompose the contribution of changes in the underlying characteristics of affected populations to these temporal changes.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting: US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Comparative Effectiveness of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors vs Sulfonylureas in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Importance: In the treatment of type 2 diabetes, evidence of the comparative effectiveness of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors vs sulfonylureas-the second most widely used antihyperglycemic class after metformin-is lacking.

Objective: To evaluate the comparative effectiveness of SGLT2 inhibitors and sulfonylureas associated with the risk of all-cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes using metformin.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A cohort study used data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs compared the use of SGLT2 inhibitors vs sulfonylureas in individuals receiving metformin for treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Clinical Implications of Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Dip Following Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Initiation on Cardiovascular and Kidney Outcomes.

Background The frequency of the initial short-term decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), eGFR dip, following initiation of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and its clinical implications in real-world practice are not clear. Methods and Results We built a cohort of 36 638 new users of SGLT2i and 209 025 new users of other antihyperglycemics. Inverse probability weighting was used to estimate the excess rate of eGFR dip, risk of the composite cardiovascular outcome of nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, or all-cause mortality, and risk of the composite kidney outcome of eGFR decline >50%, end-stage kidney disease, or all-cause mortality.

Ambient fine particulate matter air pollution and the risk of hospitalization among COVID-19 positive individuals: Cohort study.

Background: Ecologic analyses suggest that living in areas with higher levels of ambient fine particulate matter air pollution (PM) is associated with higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Studies accounting for individual-level health characteristics are lacking.

Methods: We leveraged the breadth and depth of the US Department of Veterans Affairs national healthcare databases and built a national cohort of 169,102 COVID-19 positive United States Veterans, enrolled between March 2, 2020 and January 31, 2021, and followed them through February 15, 2021.

High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.

The acute clinical manifestations of COVID-19 have been well characterized, but the post-acute sequelae of this disease have not been comprehensively described. Here we use the national healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to systematically and comprehensively identify 6-month incident sequelae-including diagnoses, medication use and laboratory abnormalities-in patients with COVID-19 who survived for at least 30 days after diagnosis. We show that beyond the first 30 days of illness, people with COVID-19 exhibit a higher risk of death and use of health resources.

Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Risk of Weight Gain and Obesity in United States Veterans: An Observational Cohort Study.

Background: Experimental evidence and studies of children and adolescents suggest that ambient fine particulate matter [particulate matter in aerodynamic diameter ()] air pollution may be obesogenic, but the relationship between and the risk of body weight gain and obesity in adults is uncertain.

Objectives: Our goal was to characterize the association between and the risks of weight gain and obesity.

Methods: We followed 3,902,440 U.

Temporal Trends in Incidence Rates of Lower Extremity Amputation and Associated Risk Factors Among Patients Using Veterans Health Administration Services From 2008 to 2018.

Importance: Lower extremity amputation (LEA) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, national temporal trends of LEA incidence rates among US veterans and associated factors have not been well characterized.

Objective: To describe the temporal trends of LEA, characterize associated risk factors, and decompose the associations of these risk factors with changes in temporal trends of LEA among US veterans using Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) services between 2008 and 2018.

County-Level Contextual Characteristics and Disparities in Life Expectancy.

Objective: To estimate the contribution of county-level contextual factors to differences in life expectancy in the United States.

Methods: We used a counterfactual approach to estimate the years of life expectancy lost associated with 45 potentially modifiable county-level contextual characteristics in the United States in the year 2016. Contextual data and life expectancy data were obtained from the County Health Ranking Project and the U.

Acute Kidney Injury in a National Cohort of Hospitalized US Veterans with COVID-19.

Background And Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with higher risk of AKI. We aimed to describe rates and characterize predictors and health outcomes associated with AKI in a national cohort of US veterans hospitalized with COVID-19.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: In a cohort of 5216 US veterans hospitalized with COVID-19 identified through July 23, 2020, we described changes in serum creatinine and examined predictors of AKI and the associations between AKI, health resource utilization, and death, utilizing logistic regressions.

Comparative Effectiveness of SGLT2 Inhibitors, GLP-1 Receptor Agonists, DPP-4 Inhibitors, and Sulfonylureas on Risk of Kidney Outcomes: Emulation of a Target Trial Using Health Care Databases.

Objective: To examine the comparative effectiveness of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP-4), and sulfonylureas on risk of kidney outcomes among people with type 2 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: U.S.

Comparative Effectiveness of the Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitor Empagliflozin Versus Other Antihyperglycemics on Risk of Major Adverse Kidney Events.

Objective: To examine the comparative effectiveness of the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) empagliflozin and other non-SGLT2i antihyperglycemics on the risk of major adverse kidney events (MAKE) of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline >50%, end-stage kidney disease, or all-cause mortality.

Research Design And Methods: In a cohort study of 379,033 new users of empagliflozin or other non-SGLT2i antihyperglycemics, predefined variables and covariates identified by a high-dimensional variable selection algorithm were used to build propensity scores. Weighted survival analyses were then applied to estimate the risk of MAKE.