Contributions of dermatologists to COVID-19 research: A brief systematic review

Impact factor JUMPS after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective study in Dermatology journals

Background

The term “JUMPS” was used to describe the impact factor (IF) in an article published in PubMed in 2021, representing an increase of more than 40% of IF.

Aims

In this study, we aimed to compare the growth rate of IF JUMPS in Dermatology in the last 5 years, and particularly the effect of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

This study evaluated the growth rate (JUMP) in IF from 2016 to 2020. We used the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests. We classified JUMPS in negative growth rate; Q1 to Q4 quartiles; and journals with > 100%. A 76–100% growth rate was observed in five (7%) journals, and twelve journals (17%) depicted a 51–75% percentage of change.

Results

Several journals in the Dermatology category increased their IF by 50%. Repeated measures analyses showed a significant difference (p < .001).

Conclusion

Although we found journals with growth rates in the four quartiles, no journals depicted negative growth rates nor > 100% growth. Knowing the growing trends in this category might supplement the assessment of target journals for authors looking to submit their works.

Inpatient Dermatology Consultations in a General Surgery Ward in a Tertiary Hospital in China: A Retrospective Study of 251 Patients

Introduction

Dermatologists play essential roles in providing dermatology consultations to inpatients admitted to hospital for care in another speciality ward. Data on dermatology consultations provided to inpatients admitted to general surgery wards are limited. The aim of this study was to analyze the reasons for and diagnoses of consultations provided by dermatologists to hospitalized patients in a general surgery ward and compare the provisional diagnoses by surgical residents and the final diagnoses by dermatologists.

Methods

Electronic health records were retrieved for patients admitted to a general surgery ward who received dermatology consultations while inpatients in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2020. Sex, age, surgical diagnosis, reason for dermatology consultation, provisional diagnosis by surgical residents, and final diagnosis by dermatologists were reviewed.

Results

A total of 262 dermatology consultations for 251 patients (n = 251, 123 women and 128 men) were identified, of whom 240 (95.6%) required only one consultation and 11 (4.4%) required two. Dermatology consultations were classified into three categories: preoperative consultation (n = 45, 17.9%), postoperative consultation (n = 65, 25.9%), and consultation unrelated to general surgery diseases or treatments (including surgery) (n = 141, 56.2%). For consultations falling in the category preoperative consultation, common reasons for the consultation were: to evaluate whether the current treatment plan for previously diagnosed skin diseases needed to be changed; to evaluate and manage skin problems that emerged after admission; to evaluate syphilis; and to evaluate whether previously diagnosed skin diseases would affect surgical incision or wound healing. Drug eruption, dermatitis/eczema, infectious skin disorders, and urticaria were the most common skin diseases in the hospitalized general surgery patients. Only 32 (12.7%) provisional diagnoses were made, of which 25 (78.1%) were correct and seven (21.9%) were incorrect. Surgical residents mainly had difficulty distinguishing herpes zoster, drug eruption, and infectious skin disorders from dermatitis/eczema.

Conclusion

Our results facilitate the understanding of inpatient dermatology consultations in general surgery wards and may help in the design of future educational materials and/or management guidelines.

Skin Manifestations Associated with COVID-19: Current Knowledge and Future Perspectives

Background

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic caused by the “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2), which was isolated for the first time in Wuhan (China) in December 2019. Common symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, dyspnea and hypogeusia/hyposmia. Among extrapulmonary signs associated with COVID-19, dermatological manifestations have been increasingly reported in the last few months.

Summary

The polymorphic nature of COVID-19-associated cutaneous manifestations led our group to propose a classification, which distinguishes the following six main clinical patterns: (i) urticarial rash, (ii) confluent erythematous/maculopapular/morbilliform rash, (iii) papulovesicular exanthem, (iv) chilblain-like acral pattern, (v) livedo reticularis/racemosa-like pattern, (vi) purpuric “vasculitic” pattern. This review summarizes the current knowledge on COVID-19-associated cutaneous manifestations, focusing on clinical features and therapeutic management of each category and attempting to give an overview of the hypothesized pathophysiological mechanisms of these conditions.

Dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19: a comprehensive systematic review

Recent reports have suggested that there may be dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19. We searched 12 databases for peer-reviewed or pre-print published studies until July 15, 2020, for this PRISMA-compliant review (CRD42020182050). We used the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence to facilitate data synthesis. From 86 retrieved studies, we collated data on 2,560 patients with dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19. The most common findings were chilblains/pernio-like lesion (51.5%), erythematous maculopapular rashes (13.3%), and viral exanthem (7.7%). Average pediatric age was 12.9 years (SD 3.6) and adult was 34.2 years (SD 21.8). Average latency from time of upper respiratory illness symptoms to cutaneous findings was 1.5 days (SD 2.9) in children and 7.9 days (SD 10.7) in adults, ranging from -3 to 38 days. Roughly one-tenth in both populations were otherwise asymptomatic or presented with only skin findings for the entirety of the disease course; 13.3% (pediatrics) and 5.3% (adults) presented with skin issues first. Dermatologic findings may play an important role in identifying cases early and serve as an important proxy to manage spread. Further prospective data collection with international prospective registries is needed.