Estimation of Admission D-dimer Cut-off Value to Predict Venous Thrombotic Events in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: Analysis of the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry.

Background: Venous thrombotic events (VTE) are frequent in COVID-19, and elevated plasma D-dimer (pDd) and dyspnea are common in both entities.

Objective: To determine the admission pDd cut-off value associated with in-hospital VTE in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: Multicenter, retrospective study analyzing the at-admission pDd cut-off value to predict VTE and anticoagulation intensity along hospitalization due to COVID-19.

Inappropriate antibiotic use in the COVID-19 era: Factors associated with inappropriate prescribing and secondary complications. Analysis of the registry SEMI-COVID.

Background: Most patients with COVID-19 receive antibiotics despite the fact that bacterial co-infections are rare. This can lead to increased complications, including antibacterial resistance. We aim to analyze risk factors for inappropriate antibiotic prescription in these patients and describe possible complications arising from their use.

Autoimmune Diseases and COVID-19 as Risk Factors for Poor Outcomes: Data on 13,940 Hospitalized Patients from the Spanish Nationwide SEMI-COVID-19 Registry.

(1) Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics and clinical course of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases (ADs) compared to the general population. (2) Methods: We used information available in the nationwide Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, which retrospectively compiles data from the first admission of adult patients with COVID-19. We selected all patients with ADs included in the registry and compared them to the remaining patients.

Prior Treatment with Statins is Associated with Improved Outcomes of Patients with COVID-19: Data from the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry.

Background: The impact of statins on COVID-19 outcomes is important given the high prevalence of their use among individuals at risk for severe COVID-19. Our aim is to assess whether patients receiving chronic statin treatment who are hospitalized with COVID-19 have reduced in-hospital mortality if statin therapy is maintained during hospitalization.

Methods: This work is a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective multicenter study that analyzed 2921 patients who required hospital admission at 150 Spanish centers included in the nationwide SEMI-COVID-19 Network.

Severity Scores in COVID-19 Pneumonia: a Multicenter, Retrospective, Cohort Study.

Background: Identification of patients on admission to hospital with coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia who can develop poor outcomes has not yet been comprehensively assessed.

Objective: To compare severity scores used for community-acquired pneumonia to identify high-risk patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Design: PSI, CURB-65, qSOFA, and MuLBSTA, a new score for viral pneumonia, were calculated on admission to hospital to identify high-risk patients for in-hospital mortality, admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), or use of mechanical ventilation.

Impact of Arterial Stiffness on All-Cause Mortality in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 in Spain.

Older age and cardiovascular comorbidities are well-known risk factors for all-cause mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Hypertension and age are the 2 principal determinants of arterial stiffness (AS). This study aimed to estimate AS in patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization and analyze its association with all-cause in-hospital mortality.

Association of Hypertension with All-Cause Mortality among Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19.

It is unclear to which extent the higher mortality associated with hypertension in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is due to its increased prevalence among older patients or to specific mechanisms. Cross-sectional, observational, retrospective multicenter study, analyzing 12226 patients who required hospital admission in 150 Spanish centers included in the nationwide SEMI-COVID-19 Network. We compared the clinical characteristics of survivors versus non-survivors.

Factors associated to temporal artery biopsy result in suspects of giant cell arteritis: a retrospective, multicenter, case-control study.

Purpose: To evaluate the positivity rate of temporal artery biopsies (TAB) performed in suspects of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and to study the epidemiological and clinical factors associated to the biopsy result.

Methods: A retrospective, multicenter, case-control study was performed, including three hundred and thirty-five patients who underwent TAB for a suspicion of GCA from 2001 to 2010. Clinical, epidemiological and pathology data were recovered from the patients' clinical records.

[Clinical value of the ankle-brachial index in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease but without known atherothrombotic disease: VITAMIN study].

Introduction And Objectives: Detecting peripheral arterial disease by measuring the ankle-brachial index can help identify asymptomatic patients with established disease. We investigated the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (i.e.

[Treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a highly prevalent condition and most epidemiological studies have found that COPD prevalence, morbidity and mortality have increased over the last few years. Recent trials suggest that treatments are improving. Several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of the long-acting inhaled beta-2-agonists.

[What is the cost of inappropriate admission of pneumonia patients?].

Background: The number of patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) varies greatly from one hospital to another. Prognostic models for CAP can help physicians decide which cases to treat on an outpatient basis. Our aims were: a) to validate a model for predicting low-risk CAP, and b) to estimate savings that would have resulted if the low-risk patients identified by the model had been treated at home rather than in hospital.

[Decisions regarding cholesterol-lowering therapy in the elderly: the experience in a lipid clinic and a review of the literature].

Background: Therapy for hypercholesterolemia is long known one of the interventions with higher benefit on coronary heart disease secondary prevention and on primary prevention in middle-age high-risk people. Data about elderly persons are more scarce. The aim of this work is to study elderly patients sent to a Lipid Clinic, focusing on Serum Lp (a) levels and criteria to prescript cholesterol-lowering drugs.

[Anticentromere antibodies and lung disease without skin involvement].

Anticentromere antibodies are closely related to systemic sclerosis and basically to limited cutaneous form. Two patients with different forms of lung disease, positive anticentromere antibodies and absence of the characteristic skin involvement of the systemic sclerosis are presented.

[The epidemiology of tuberculosis in El Ferrol].

Background: This study was undertaken to know the frequency of tuberculosis in El Ferrol and to contribute to the knowledge of the situation in Spain.

Methods: A retrospective study of all the cases of tuberculosis diagnosed in the Hospital A. Marcide-Novoa Santos (El Ferrol, Spain) from 1990 to 1993 was performed.

[Recurrent infections, severe neutropenia and neutrophil chemotaxis defect in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria].

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare disease, whose origin seems to lie in a acquired defect in the membrane of the pluri-potential hematopoietic cell. Chronic or intermittent acute hemolytic syndrome is the most frequent clinical manifestation, although in the literature there are also some references to the leukocytic and immunologic disorders of this disease. In this paper, we present the case of a 63-year-old patient with NPH who developed severe neutropenia and sustained febrile syndrome.