COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

Critical care echocardiography (CCE) has been widely used since the 10 last years. Covid outbreak leads that many patients with acute respiratory failure were admitted in the ICU. Many of these patients were ventilated and developed ARDS. Some of them developed deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Nothing is already described about the cardiac function and the hemodynamics in these patients (how many RV failure, LV systolic dysfunction,...). The echo group of the cardiodynamix section of European society of intensive care medicien (ESICM) aims to promote CCE and evaluate its interest. The objective is to retrospectively enter in an international database all the echo studies done as usual care in these patients to evaluate (i) incidence of RV failure, (ii) incidence of LV systolic function, (iii) incidence of other patterns. Another objective will be to look for any association between some patterns and respiratory strategy, blood gas analysis, systemic hemodynamics. The echo studies were done and will be reported following one of the recent systematic review published by the same group (Huang S et al. AOIC 2020).

The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and efficiency of an assembled modified mask in protecting health care workers against Coronavirus in case of any personal protective equipment shortage. At least 20 healthy participants will be recruited to try the modified mask. The modified masks will be made from masks that are already available as well as filters available in the pulmonary department at the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System

According to various studies Covid 19 pneumonia has a very similar clinical course to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) which has clarified by Berlin definition. Based on this similarity, extracellular fluid of lungs and diffuse alveolar damage should be observed in covid 19 pneumonia as well. Extracellular water (ECW) can be determine by using whole body bioimpedence system (NİCaS). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of ECW on the clinical apperence of covid 19 pneumonia clinical course.

Covid-19 infection is due to SARS-CoV-2 member of the Coronavirus family represented by SARS- and MERS-CoVwith neuronal tropism capacity for the brainstem and thalami. Dexmedetomidine has(i) central antihypertensive (ii) sedative and (iii) neuroprotective properties and is often used during patient recovering after mechanical ventilation withdrawal. Dexmedetomidine administration could change the immunomodulatory profile of Covid-19 patients and reduce inflammatory response.CAM-ICU scores and Blood samples from Covid-19 ICU patients will be collected at 4 different timepoints (before Dexmedetomidine administration, at D2, D7 and M6) to analyse the inflammatory profile with different approaches:i) chromatin accessibility, ii) transcriptome analysis, iii) inflammatory cytokines and chemokines levels.

Hong Kong public healthcare system is facing tremendous pressure under the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus spread in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital (HKSH) is one of the first private hospitals which immediately provide reliable and rapid COVID-19 test -- Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Early provision of the RT-PCR screening test for COVID-19 not only facilitates identification of COVID-19 but also contains the spread of the virus in the community and frontline medical staff. Since description of role of private hospital in Hong Kong amid COVID-19 pandemic is lacking, this study will describe COVID-19 screening algorithm and methodology. A retrospective analysis on clinical characteristics, laboratory findings as well as outcome of patients who underwent COVID-19 test in HKSH is also performed.

The treatment of COVID-19 severe acute respiratory syndrome with ruxolitinib 5 mg orally every 12 hours during 14 days would stop the disproportionate inflammatory response, causing a reduction in the proportion of patients who show a progression and worsening of the severe acute respiratory syndrome.

COronaVIrus Disease or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -CoV-2 or COVID-19, mortality occurs mainly from immunological behavior or by suicide after healing . In both cases, the causal link is coronavirus within the host response. The rationale of use of deep yoga breathing as adjuvant treatment to COVID-19 disease , is linked to the mechanical action to stimulate the vagus nerve through scalene and sternocleidomastoid muscles function of which the continuity of action bring to modulate upto suppress, the inflammatory reflex and pro-inflammatory cytokines overproduction and contextual lowering of the sympathetic stress response as a first cause of sleep and late mental disorders which can increase the annual suicide rate. An easily breathing medical Yoga protocol has been developed to test a cost-effective care provision, training, contact tracing and mass efficacy testing.

COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, currently poses a global economic, social, political and medical challenge. The virus originated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has spread rapidly around the world. Currently, European countries, including Austria, are severely affected.The most common computed tomographic changes in acute lung injury include bilateral and subpleural milk glass opacity, consolidation in lower lobes, or both. In the intermediate phase of the infection (4-14 days after the onset of symptoms) a so-called "crazy paving" may occur. The most prominent radiological changes occur around day 10, followed by gradual resolution, which begins two weeks after the onset of symptoms. Given the phylogenetic relationship between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, the similar clinical course in severe cases and overlapping CT patterns in the acute setting, persistent radiological and pulmonary functional changes in survivors are conceivable. It is also conceivable that a proportion of survivors will develop progressive ILD, either due to viral or ventilator-induced alveolar damage, or both. Here, the investigators intend to investigate COVID-19 survivors through clinical examinations, functional lung examinations, HR-CT scans, and by determining the "immunofibrotic" pattern in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) 1, 3, and 6 months after discharge.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine not only protects against tuberculosis, but has also been shown to induce protection against various infections with a viral aetiology, leading to significant reductions in morbidity and mortality. We hypothesize that BCG vaccination might be a potent preventive measure against SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or may reduce disease severity in elderly people, who are known to be at increased risk of illness and death from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, we will in this placebo-controlled adaptive multi-centre randomized controlled trial evaluate the ability of BCG to reduce hospital admission and its efficacy to improve the clinical course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in elderly people((≥ 60 years of age).

Although SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-associated coronavirus) due to COVID-19 evolves poorly towards ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) and death, there is to date no validated drug available for severe forms of COVID-19. Patients with COVID-19 undergo a drastic decrease of T lymphocytes (LT) count, while the remaining ones display an "exhausted" phenotype, due to immunosuppressive pathway activation among which the Programed cell Death 1 (PD1) receptor pathways. LT exhaustion is responsible for host anergy towards viral infection and leads to increased risk of severe forms of COVID-19. Moreover, while the number of systemic LT PD1+ correlates with poor prognosis clinical stages of COVID-19 infection, healing from COVID-19 associates with LT PD1 expression normalization. Chinese epidemiologic data identified clinical risk factors of poor clinical evolution (i.e. ARDS or death), among which is found obesity, similarly to observation previously obtained during H1N1 infection (flu virus). Obese persons display meta-inflammation and immune dysfunction, a condition similar to ageing, thus termed "Inflamm-aging", thus also used during obesity. Inflamm-aging, characterized by cytotoxic LT exhaustion and reduced NK cell (Natural Killer cell) cytotoxic function secondary to PD1 pathway activation, could contribute to the poor prognosis observed during cancer and infection in obese individuals. We hypothesize that the immunocompromised profile observed during obesity contribute to their vulnerability towards COVID-19. In cancer or certain infection diseases, NIVOLUMAB, an anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody, restores exhausted LT immunity. We thus hypothesize that NIVOLUMAB-induced immunity normalization could (i) stimulate anti-viral response also during COVID-19 infection and (ii) prevent ARDS development, which has previously been associated with low LT count concomitant with increased inflammatory cytokine production. This randomized controlled therapeutic trial, using an add-on strategy to usual standard of care, aims at demonstrating the efficacy and safety of NIVOLUMAB-induced cytotoxic LT normalization, to improve clinical outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19+ adult obese individuals with low LT, since they are at risk of poor prognosis. We postulate that NIVOLUMAB will increase the number of individuals able to stop oxygen therapy at D15