Assessing the capacity of symptom scores to predict COVID-19 positivity in Nigeria: a national derivation and validation cohort study

Evaluation of Diagnostic Strategies for Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Clinical Practice: a Systematic Review and Compliance with the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Studies Guideline (STARD)

We aimed to review strategies for identifying SARS-CoV-2 infection before the availability of molecular test results, and to assess the reporting quality of the studies identified through the application of the STARD guideline. We screened 3,821 articles published until 30 April 2021, of which 23 met the inclusion criteria: including at least two diagnostic variables, being designed for use in clinical practice or in a public health context and providing diagnostic accuracy rates. Data extraction and application of STARD criteria were performed independently by two researchers and discrepancies were discussed with a third author. Most of the studies (16, 69.6%) included symptomatic patients with suspected infection, six studies (26.1%) included patients already diagnosed and one study (4.3%) included individuals with close contact to a COVID-positive patient. The main variables considered in the studies, which included symptomatic patients, were imaging and demographic characteristics, symptoms, and lymphocyte count. The values for area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)ranged from 53-97.4. Seven studies (30.4%) validated the diagnostic model in an independent sample. The average number of STARD criteria fulfilled was 17.6 (maximum, 27 and minimum, 5). High diagnostic accuracy values are shown when more than one diagnostic variable is considered, mainly imaging and demographic characteristics, symptoms, and lymphocyte count. This could offer the potential to identify individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection with high accuracy when molecular testing is not available. However, external validation for developed models and evaluations in populations as similar as possible to those in which they will be applied is urgently needed. IMPORTANCE According to this review, the inclusion of more than one diagnostic test in the diagnostic process for COVID-19 infection shows high diagnostic accuracy values. Imaging characteristics, patients' symptoms, demographic characteristics, and lymphocyte count were the variables most frequently included in the diagnostic models. However, developed models should be externally validated before reaching conclusions on their utility in practice. In addition, it is important to bear in mind that the test should be evaluated in populations as similar as possible to those in which it will be applied in practice.

The efficacy of combined therapy of qingfeiPaidu capsule and lianhuaqingwen capsule nursing interventions for hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A retrospective study of medical records

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused a global pandemic burden, affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals, having life-threatening outcomes. Traditional Chinese Medicine plays a crucial role in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of combined therapy of qingfeiPaidu (QFPD) capsule and lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) capsule nursing interventions in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. A total of 318 patients with COVID-19 were enrolled and randomly received QFPD (n = 106), LHQW (n = 106), and QFPD-LHQW (n = 106). The clinical characteristics of COVID-19, the total lung severity scores, and blood laboratory indices were recorded in each patient in each group before treatment and at the end of treatment. The outcomes demonstrated that QFPD-LHQW group shortened the length of hospitalization, decreased C-reactive protein, creatine kinase, creatine kinase-myocardial band, lactate dehydrogenase, and blood urea nitrogen levels, and improved clinical symptoms, pulmonary inflammation, and prognosis. At the end of treatment, inflammation, immune function, circulating white blood cells, total lymphocyte count, and glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase levels improved dramatically in 3 groups compared with baseline. All patients met the discharge criteria after 30-day treatment in 3 groups. Combined therapy of QFPD and LHQW demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory effects compared with those of only QFPD or LHQW in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19. The combined therapies may alleviate clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients by improving inflammation and immune function.

FebriDx for rapid screening of patients with suspected COVID-19 upon hospital admission: systematic literature review and meta-analysis

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was undertaken of the lateral flow-based FebriDx immunoassay for triaging patients with suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) upon admission to healthcare facilities. An electronic search was conducted in Scopus and Medline using the keywords ‘FebriDx’ AND ‘COVID-19’ OR ‘SARS-CoV-2’, with no language or date (i.e. up to 4^th February 2022) limits, selecting studies where FebriDx was used for triaging patients with suspected COVID-19 in acute care settings, and reporting sufficient data to construct a 2×2 table. Five studies were included in the final analysis, totalling 2309 patients. The pooled diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 0.91 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88–0.93] and 0.92 (95% CI 0.90–0.93), whilst the area under the curve, accuracy and kappa statistics were 0.971 (95% CI 0.962–0.980), 91.4% (95% CI 90.2–92.5%) and 0.762 (95% CI 0.731–0.793), respectively, thus reflecting substantial agreement with reference molecular testing techniques. Negative and positive predictive values were 0.974 (95% CI 0.966–0.981) and 0.742 (95% CI 0.711–0.770), respectively. This pooled analysis demonstrated that FebriDx has clinical value for rapid screening of patients with suspected COVID-19 in acute care settings, especially in regions with high viral circulation in which the pre-test probability is high, and enables prioritization for confirmatory laboratory testing.