COVID-19 Update June 8, 2020

 


MSSNY Members Win Two Leadership Slots at AMA
Two MSSNY members were elected Sunday to key leadership positions at the American Medical Association’s first virtual meeting.

Former MSSNY president Thomas Madejski MD of Albion, NY was elected to a four-year term on the AMA’s Board of Trustee while Erick Eiting MD from Manhattan was elected to the AMA’s Council on Medical Service for a four-year term.

Dr. Madejski served as MSSNY president in 2018.  And has been an AMA member for 35 years.  He has also served as chair of the Empire State Medical, Scientific and Scientific Foundation and previously was a member of the AMA’s Council on Medical Service.   He received a pharmacy degree from SUNY Buffalo and his MD from the SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse. A board-certified IM, his practice is focused on geriatrics, hospice, and palliative care.  Dr. Madejski said, “I am honored and humbled to be selected by the HOD to serve on the Board of Trustees. I will work tirelessly to improve health care for our patients and the practice of medicine and bring equity to our healthcare system and our country.”

Dr. Erick Eiting is Vice Chair of Operations for Emergency Medicine at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. Certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Eiting received his Medical Degree from SUNY Downstate.


Gov.: “NYC Is Eligible to Resume Elective Surgeries and Ambulatory Care”
As New York City enters phase one of reopening today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that New York City is now eligible to resume elective surgeries and ambulatory care. The Governor previously announced that the state will allow elective outpatient treatments to resume in counties and hospitals without significant risk of COVID-19 surge in the near term.


MLMIC Banner


DFS Releases NY Insurers Requested Premium Increases for 2021
The NY DFS has released a chart of NY-health insurer requested premium increases for 2021, ranging from +1.4% to 29.1% in the group market, and -3.7% to +19.1% in the individual market.


Staten Island Amazon Employees Sue after Contracting Coronavirus-19
Three employees at Amazon‘s JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island and family members of the workers have filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly mandating work conditions that led to at least one employee contracting the new coronavirus.

The lawsuit claims that the employee then transmitted the virus to multiple family members, including one who died. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon made the warehouse a “place of danger” by obstructing efforts intended to prevent the new coronavirus’ spread at the facility and instead prioritize productivity over safety. According to Reuters, Amazon said the company has followed guidance from health authorities and experts on workplace safety since the new coronavirus pandemic began, but the company did not comment on the lawsuit (Reuters, 6/3).


 

Garfunkel Banner Ad


Severe Complications Seen in All Stages of COVID-19, Including Recovery
More than half of COVID-19 patients admitted to two hospitals in Spain developed some form of neurologic symptoms, a retrospective, observational study showed.

Neurologic manifestations were seen in 57.4% of 841 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in March, reported Carlos Manuel Romero-Sanchez, MD, of Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete in Spain, and co-authors in Neurology.

In 4.1% of COVID-19 deaths in the study, neurologic complications were considered the fundamental cause.

This is the largest hospital-based study of COVID-19 patients to analyze neurologic symptoms systematically, the researchers noted. Neurologic symptoms emerged throughout all phases of COVID-19 infection. Potentially severe conditions, like stroke and inflammatory diseases, appeared in late COVID stages, Romero-Sanchez said.

“We would like to raise awareness that neurological complications may arise in the recovery phase of COVID-19, including cerebrovascular and dysimmune,” he told MedPage Today. “Optic neuritis and acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy are two examples.”

In the study, one in five patients (19.6%) hospitalized with COVID-19 had disorders of consciousness. “Disorders of consciousness were associated with severe COVID, older age, higher creatine kinase levels, and lower lymphocyte count,” Romero-Sanchez noted.

Disorders of consciousness were nearly twice as high (38.9%) among patients with severe COVID-19 (with severity defined by 2007 Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society criteria). Most cases of altered consciousness were secondary to severe hypoxemia, the researchers noted. Of patients with severe COVID-19, 14.9% had delirium and 9.4% had coma.

Across all 841 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, myopathy (3.1%), dysautonomia (2.5%), cerebrovascular diseases (1.7%), seizures (0.7%), and hyperkinetic movement disorders (0.7%) occurred. Cerebrovascular diseases included 11 patients (1.3%) with ischemic stroke and three patients (0.4%) with intracranial hemorrhage.

“More than one-third of ischemic strokes involved posterior arterial territories, an unusual proportion,” Romero-Sanchez pointed out.

“Moreover, we had some cases of otherwise unexplained vertebro-basilar dissection and also one case of multiple cortical hemorrhages associated with brain MRI pattern resembling posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome,” he added. “Although our study is mainly descriptive, we hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] may carry special tropism towards posterior circulation and endotheliopathy may be suggested.”

In the study, nonspecific symptoms such as myalgias (17.2%), headache (14.1%), and dizziness (6.1%) were common. Anosmia (4.9%) and dysgeusia (6.2%) tended to occur early — 60% of the time they occurred, they were the first clinical manifestation of COVID-19 — and were more frequent in less severe cases. One case each of encephalitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and optic neuritis emerged.


MSSNY Helpline for Physicians Experiencing
COVID-19 Related Stress
518-292-0140


The analysis was a systematic review of all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the AlbaCOVID registry. Patients had been admitted to two Spanish hospitals, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete and Hospital General de Almansa, from March 1 to April 1, 2020. They had a confirmed laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19, either with a positive result for IgG/IgM antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in a blood test or through detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA with a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of throat swab samples.

In total, 329 patients (39%) had severe COVID-19. Seventy-seven patients were admitted to the ICU, and 197 patients died during the course of their hospital admission. Neurologic complications were considered the fundamental cause of patient death in eight cases (4.1% of total deaths).

Overall, patients were an average age of 66 and 56% were men. Those with severe disease were older than those with mild disease (71 years vs 63 years; P<0.001). Sex was not a risk factor for severe prognosis.

Hypertension (55.2%), obesity (44.5%), dyslipidemia (43.3%), tobacco smoking (36%), diabetes mellitus (25.1%), and heart disease (18.8%) were the most common systemic comorbidities. In multivariate analysis, obesity was the only independent predictor for severe COVID-19 (OR 3.06, 95% CI 1.41-6.67, P=0.005).

The researchers were unable to demonstrate direct invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) in this study; all CNS analyses were negative for viral RNA. They could not determine whether neurologic problems stemmed from SARS-CoV-2 infection or other factors like cross-immunity, inflammatory reaction, or side effects of treatment.

The pandemic context prevented a full neurologic exam of every hospitalized COVID-19 patient and selection bias may have occurred, Romero-Sanchez and co-authors noted. They added that the study is hospital-based and does not reflect the incidence of neurologic complications of COVID-19 patients in the community. (MedPage Today June 5, 2020)

Primary Source

Neurology: Source Reference: Romero-Sánchez CM, et al “Neurologic manifestations in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: The ALBACOVID registry” Neurology 2020; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000009937.


 

 


NY Docs Rock Banner