[NT-proBNP in practice: from chemistry to medicine]

Impact of influenza immunity on the mortality among older adults hospitalized with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study

It has been suggested that the outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are better in individuals having recently received an influenza vaccine than in non-vaccinated individuals. We hypothesized that this association depends on the humoral responses against influenza viruses. We aim to assess the relationship between the humoral immunity against influenza and the 3-month all-cause mortality among hospitalized older patients with COVID-19. We performed an exploratory retrospective study of older patients (aged 65 and over) hospitalized for confirmed COVID-19 between November 2020 and June 2021. Previous humoral responses to influenza viruses were assessed using a hemagglutination inhibition assay on routinely collected blood samples. The study's primary outcome was the 3-month all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcomes were severe COVID-19 (oxygen requirement ≥ 6 L/min or ventilatory support) and complications (kidney or heart failure, thrombosis and bacterial infection). In the cohort of 95 patients with COVID-19, immunity against influenza vaccine subtypes/lineages was not significantly associated with 3-month all-cause mortality, with an OR [95%CI] of 0.22 [0.02-1.95] (p = 0.174) for the H1N1pdm09 subtype, 0.21 [0.03-1.24] (p = 0.081) for A/Hong Kong/2671/2019 H3N2 subtype, 1.98 [0.51-8.24] (p = 0.329) for the B/Victoria lineage, and 1.82 [0.40-8.45] (p = 0.437) for the B/Yamagata lineage. Immunity against influenza vaccine subtypes/lineages was also not significantly associated with severity and complication. Immunity against influenza subtypes/lineages included in the 2020-2021 vaccine was not associated with a lower 3-month all-cause mortality among COVID-19 hospitalized patients.Trial registration: The study was approved by a hospital committee with competency for research not requiring approval by an institutional review board (Tours University Medical Center, Tours, France: reference: 2021_015). All patients give the informed consent.

Biosensors for the Rapid Detection of Cardiovascular Biomarkers of Vital Interest: Needs, Analysis and Perspectives

We have previously surveyed a panel of 508 physicians from around the world about which biomarkers would be relevant if obtained in a very short time frame, corresponding to emergency situations (life-threatening or not). The biomarkers that emerged from this study were markers of cardiovascular disease: troponin, D-dimers, and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). Cardiovascular disease is a group of disorders affecting the heart and blood vessels. At the intersection of medicine, basic research and engineering, biosensors that address the need for rapid biological analysis could find a place of choice in the hospital or primary care ecosystem. Rapid, reliable, and inexpensive analysis with a multi-marker approach, including machine learning analysis for patient risk analysis, could meet the demand of medical teams. The objective of this opinion review, proposed by a multidisciplinary team of experts (physicians, biologists, market access experts, and engineers), is to present cases where a rapid biological response is indeed valuable, to provide a short overview of current biosensor technologies for cardiac biomarkers designed for a short result time, and to discuss existing market access issues.

Prediction of pulmonary hypertension related to systemic sclerosis by an index based on simple clinical observations

OBJECTIVE

To develop a score to estimate the risk of developing pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

METHODS

We first examined the prevalence and characteristics of precapillary PH confirmed by right-heart catheterization in a cross-sectional (derivation) sample of 1,165 SSc patients, and we developed a risk prediction score (RPS) based on simple clinical observations associated with PH. We next prospectively tested the 3-year predictive power of the "Cochin RPS" in a separate (validation) sample of 443 patients presenting with PH-free SSc at baseline.

RESULTS

In the derivation sample, age, forced vital capacity, and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide/alveolar volume were independently associated with the presence of PH and were used to create the Cochin RPS. PH developed during followup in 20 patients in the validation sample. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the Cochin RPS was 0.87 (95% confidence interval 0.79-0.95). With a cutoff value of 2.73, patients at risk of PH during followup could be identified with 89.5% sensitivity and 74.1% specificity. PH occurred in 0.6% of patients in the lowest 2 quintiles of the Cochin RPS, in 1.7% of patients in the third and fourth quintiles, and in 17.1% of patients in the highest quintile (P<0.0001 by log rank test). Patients in the highest quintile incurred a >35-fold higher risk of developing PH compared with patients in the 2 lowest quintiles (P=0.001).

CONCLUSION

Using routine clinical observations, we developed a simple score that accurately predicted the risk of PH in SSc.