Semi-supervised COVID-19 volumetric pulmonary lesion estimation on CT images using probabilistic active contour and CNN segmentation.

Purpose: A semi-supervised two-step methodology is proposed to obtain a volumetric estimation of COVID-19-related lesions on Computed Tomography (CT) images.

Methods: First, damaged tissue was segmented from CT images using a probabilistic active contours approach. Second, lung parenchyma was extracted using a previously trained U-Net.

Evaluation of the usefulness of vitamin D as a predictor of mortality in patients with COVID-19.

Introduction: One of the functions of vitamin D is to regulate respiratory epithelium inflammatory response; therefore, deficiency of this vitamin in the context of COVID-19 could constitute a predictive biomarker of the disease outcome.

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of vitamin D for predicting mortality in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: Observational, retrospective study in which 154 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were included, out of whom 111 survived and 43 died.

Prospective predictive performance comparison between clinical gestalt and validated COVID-19 mortality scores.

Most COVID-19 mortality scores were developed at the beginning of the pandemic and clinicians now have more experience and evidence-based interventions. Therefore, we hypothesized that the predictive performance of COVID-19 mortality scores is now lower than originally reported. We aimed to prospectively evaluate the current predictive accuracy of six COVID-19 scores and compared it with the accuracy of clinical gestalt predictions.

The low-harm score for predicting mortality in patients diagnosed with COVID-19: A multicentric validation study.

Objective: We sought to determine the accuracy of the LOW-HARM score (Lymphopenia, Oxygen saturation, White blood cells, Hypertension, Age, Renal injury, and Myocardial injury) for predicting death from coronavirus disease 2019) COVID-19.

Methods: We derived the score as a concatenated Fagan's nomogram for Bayes theorem using data from published cohorts of patients with COVID-19. We validated the score on 400 consecutive COVID-19 hospital admissions (200 deaths and 200 survivors) from 12 hospitals in Mexico.

[The process of death in the intensive care unit (ICU). From a medical, thanatological and legislative point of view].

Traditional goals in the intensive care unit are to reduce morbidity and mortality. Despite medical and technological advances, death in the intensive care unit remains commonplace and the modern critical care team should be familiar with palliative care and legislation in Mexico. Preserving the dignity of patients, avoiding harm, and maintaining communication with the relatives is fundamental.