Severe infection constitutes a predictor of poor prognosis in SLE patients, is more common in Latin-Americans and is associated with age, previous infection, and smoking. Antimalarials exerted a protective effect.

The intragastric balloon is a temporary treatment for obese patients. Fluid-filled devices have shown efficacy and safety, and are widely used. Recently, although there are no comparative studies between them, an air-filled balloon, Heliosphere® bag, has been proposed. Prospective, double-blind study in 33 patients with morbid and type 2 obesity: 23 female, 43.9±10 years, 120.3±17 kg, and body mass index (BMI) of 44.2±5 kg/m2, placing 18 gastric balloons filled with 960 cm3 of air (Heliosphere® bag) or 15 balloons filled with 700 ml of saline (Bioenterics-BIB®). Both balloons were placed with conscious sedation and removed under general anesthesia 6 months later. Intravenous drugs were given to control symptoms for 48 h. Patients were sent home on a 1000-kcal diet, multivitamin supplements, and oral proton pump inhibitors, and were followed monthly. Complications, symptoms, weight, and quality of life evaluated by the Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) scale were recorded. At 6 months, mean weight loss (12.8±8 vs 14.1±8 kg), BMI loss (4.6±3 vs 5.5±3 kg/m2) and percent excess weight loss (27±16 vs.30.2±17) showed no significant differences between both groups. At removal, two Heliosphere® bags were not found in the stomach, and four patients required extraction of the balloon by rigid esophagoscopy or surgery (p=0.02). Tolerance was good in both groups, but early removal occurred in three BIB® (20%) due to vomits and dehydration. The GIQLI total scores remained unchanged. Both balloons achieve a significant weight loss with good tolerance in obese patients. Nevertheless, Heliosphere® bag has severe technical problems that need to be solved before recommending it.

Survivors to COVID-19 have described long-term symptoms after acute disease. These signs constitute a heterogeneous group named long COVID or persistent COVID. The aim of this study is to describe persisting symptoms 6 months after COVID-19 diagnosis in a prospective cohort in the Northwest Spain. This is a prospective cohort study performed in the COHVID-GS. This cohort includes patients in clinical follow-up in a health area of 569,534 inhabitants after SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 diagnosis. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics were collected during the follow up. A total of 248 patients completed 6 months follow-up, 176 (69.4%) required hospitalization and 29 (10.2%) of them needed critical care. At 6 months, 119 (48.0%) patients described one or more persisting symptoms. The most prevalent were: extra-thoracic symptoms (39.1%), chest symptoms (27%), dyspnoea (20.6%), and fatigue (16.1%). These symptoms were more common in hospitalized patients (52.3% vs. 38.2%) and in women (59.0% vs. 40.5%). The multivariate analysis identified COPD, women gender and tobacco consumption as risk factors for long COVID. Persisting symptoms are common after COVID-19 especially in hospitalized patients compared to outpatients (52.3% vs. 38.2%). Based on these findings, special attention and clinical follow-up after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection should be provided for hospitalized patients with previous lung diseases, tobacco consumption, and women.

Enterovirus D68 was known to be the cause of mild to severe respiratory infections, but in the last few years, it has also been associated with myelitis and paralysis. This report describes the first Enterovirus D68 detections in acute flaccid paralysis cases occurring between December 2015 and March 2016 in Spain.

A significant percentage of patients have moderately-to-severely active SLE at some stage. Disease activity has a big impact in terms of need for treatment and cause of hospitalization. The effectiveness of the standard therapies for reducing disease activity is clearly insufficient. Some clinical features are associated with refractory SLE.