Background: Information regarding the incidence and characteristics of COVID-19 pneumonia amongst pregnant women is scarce. Methods: Single-centre experience with 32 pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 5 to April 5, 2020 at Madrid, Spain. Findings: COVID-19 pneumonia was diagnosed in 61¢5% (32/52) women. Only 18¢7% (6/32) had some underlying condition (mostly asthma). Supplemental oxygen therapy was required in 18 patients (56¢3%), with high-flow requirements in six (18¢7%). Eight patients (25¢0%) fulfilled the criteria for acute distress respiratory syndrome. Invasive mechanical ventilation was required in two patients (6¢2%). Tocilizumab was administered in five patients (15¢6%). Delivery was precipitated due to COVID-19 in three women (9¢4%). All the newborns had a favourable outcome, with no cases of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Severe cases of pneumonia requiring supplemental oxygen were more likely to exhibit bilateral alveolar or interstitial infiltrates on chest X-ray (55¢6% vs. 0¢0%; P-value = 0¢003) and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels >10 mg/dL (33¢0% vs. 0¢0%; P-value = 0¢05) at admission than those with no oxygen requirements. Interpretation: Pregnant women with COVID-19 have a high risk of developing pneumonia, with a severe course in more than half of cases. The presence of bilateral kung infiltrates and elevated serum CRP at admission may identify women at-risk of severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

Monitoring for cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMV-CMI) may be useful for individualizing valganciclovir (VGCV) prophylaxis after kidney transplantation (KT). We performed a commercial ELISA-based interferon (IFN)-γ release assay (QTF-CMV) from posttransplant months 2-5 (362 points) in 120 CMVseropositive KT recipients that received antithymocyte globulin as induction therapy and VGCV prophylaxis (median of 92 days). Forty-seven patients (39.3%) had CMV infection after discontinuation of prophylaxis. The QTF-CMV assay was reactive, nonreactive, and indeterminate in 264 (72.9%), 90 (24.9%), and 8 points (2.2%). The QTF-CMV assay at prophylaxis discontinuation exhibited suboptimal accuracy for predicting protective CMV-CMI (sensitivity: 77.4%; specificity: 34.3%; positive predictive value [PPV]: 64.1%; negative predictive value [NPV]: 50.0%), with no differences in 1-year CMV infection rates between patients with negative (nonreactive or indeterminate) or reactive results (45.8% vs 36.1%; P = .244). Specificity and PPV to predict protective CMV-CMI improved by elevating the IFN-γ cutoff value to 1.13 IU/mL (65.7% and 71.4%) and 7.0 IU/mL (85.7% and 76.2%), although NPVs decreased. The QTF-CMV assay as per manufacturer's interpretative criteria performed poorly to predict protection from CMV infection following discontinuation of VGCV prophylaxis among ATG-treated CMV-seropositive KT recipients. This performance is slightly improved by modifying the IFN-γ positivity threshold.

Background A progressive increase in the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) due to Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) has been reported. Current guidelines recommend antibiotic treatment for at least 7–14 days, although the supporting evidence is limited. Methods We performed a retrospective single-centre study including all patients with a definite diagnosis of GNB CRBSI from January 2012 to October 2018 in which the central venous catheter (CVC) was removed. The occurrence of therapeutic failure [clinical failure (persistence of symptoms and laboratory signs of infection), microbiological failure (persistent bacteraemia or relapse) and/or all-cause 30 day mortality] was compared between episodes receiving short [≤7 days (SC)] or long courses [>7 days (LC)] of appropriate antibiotic therapy following CVC removal. Results We included 54 GNB CRBSI episodes with an overall rate of therapeutic failure of 27.8% (15/54). Episodes receiving SC therapy were more frequently due to MDR GNB [60.9% (14/23) versus 34.5% (10/29); P = 0.058] and had higher Pitt scores [median (IQR) 1 (0–4) versus 0 (0–2); P = 0.086]. There were no significant differences in the rate of therapeutic failure between episodes treated with SC or LC therapy [30.4% (7/23) versus 27.6% (8/29); OR 1.15; 95% CI 0.34–3.83; P = 0.822]. The use of SCs was not associated with increased odds of therapeutic failure in any of the exploratory models performed. Conclusions The administration of appropriate antibiotic therapy for ≤7 days may be as safe and effective as longer courses in episodes of GNB CRBSI once the CVC has been removed.

Although caution should be exerted when interpreting the above findings due to the single-center design of our study and the absence of cases of biopsy-proven BKPyVAN, the present experience would preliminarily suggest that early post-transplant TTV kinetics may inform about the individual risk of BKPyV viremia in KT recipients. Regular monitoring of TTV DNA levels would serve as a comprehensive surrogate for post-transplant immunocompetence and the associated susceptibility to other iRAEs, thus offering practical advantages over the sole assessment of BKPyV replication. 4 Moreover, the feasibility of such an approach is supported by the recent advent of commercial real-time PCR assays targeting a highly conserved segment (5′ untranslated region) of the viral genome, with the potential for a rapid turnaround time. 6 Our research must be considered as hypothesis-generating, and external validation studies on larger mul-