Imaging Severity COVID-19 Assessment in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Patients: Comparison of the Different Variants in a High Volume Italian Reference Center.

Purpose: To analyze the vaccine effect by comparing five groups: unvaccinated patients with Alpha variant, unvaccinated patients with Delta variant, vaccinated patients with Delta variant, unvaccinated patients with Omicron variant, and vaccinated patients with Omicron variant, assessing the “gravity” of COVID-19 pulmonary involvement, based on CT findings in critically ill patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Methods: Patients were selected by ICU database considering the period from December 2021 to 23 March 2022, according to the following inclusion criteria: patients with proven Omicron variant COVID-19 infection with known COVID-19 vaccination with at least two doses and with chest Computed Tomography (CT) study during ICU hospitalization. Wee also evaluated the ICU database considering the period from March 2020 to December 2021, to select unvaccinated consecutive patients with Alpha variant, subjected to CT study, consecutive unvaccinated and vaccinated patients with Delta variant, subjected to CT study, and, consecutive unvaccinated patients with Omicron variant, subjected to CT study.

Quantitative Analysis of Residual COVID-19 Lung CT Features: Consistency among Two Commercial Software.

Objective: To investigate two commercial software and their efficacy in the assessment of chest CT sequelae in patients affected by COVID-19 pneumonia, comparing the consistency of tools.

Materials And Methods: Included in the study group were 120 COVID-19 patients (56 women and 104 men; 61 years of median age; range: 21-93 years) who underwent chest CT examinations at discharge between 5 March 2020 and 15 March 2021 and again at a follow-up time (3 months; range 30-237 days). A qualitative assessment by expert radiologists in the infectious disease field (experience of at least 5 years) was performed, and a quantitative evaluation using thoracic VCAR software (GE Healthcare, Chicago, Illinois, United States) and a pneumonia module of ANKE ASG-340 CT workstation (HTS Med & Anke, Naples, Italy) was performed.

Management of Spontaneous Bleeding in COVID-19 Inpatients: Is Embolization Always Needed?

Background: critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection present a hypercoagulable condition. Anticoagulant therapy is currently recommended to reduce thrombotic risk, leading to potentially severe complications like spontaneous bleeding (SB). Percutaneous transcatheter arterial embolization (PTAE) can be life-saving in critical patients, in addition to medical therapy.

An explainable AI system for automated COVID-19 assessment and lesion categorization from CT-scans.

COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 pathogen has been a catastrophic pandemic outbreak all over the world, with exponential increasing of confirmed cases and, unfortunately, deaths. In this work we propose an AI-powered pipeline, based on the deep-learning paradigm, for automated COVID-19 detection and lesion categorization from CT scans. We first propose a new segmentation module aimed at automatically identifying lung parenchyma and lobes.

Prophylactic heparin and risk of orotracheal intubation or death in patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 pneumonia.

Prophylactic low molecular weight heparin (pLMWH) is currently recommended in COVID-19 to reduce the risk of coagulopathy. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the antinflammatory effects of pLMWH could translate in lower rate of clinical progression in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Patients admitted to a COVID-hospital in Rome with SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild/moderate pneumonia were retrospectively evaluated.