Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in China has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. The cardiac injury is a common condition among the hospitalized patients with COVID-19. However, whether N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) predicted outcome of severe COVID-19 patients was unknown. Methods: The study initially enrolled 102 patients with severe COVID-19 from a continuous sample. After screening out the ineligible cases, 54 patients were analyzed in this study. The primary outcome was in-hospital death defined as the case fatality rate. Research information and following-up data were obtained from their medical records.Results: The best cut-off value of NT-proBNP for predicting in-hospital death was 88.64 pg/mL with the sensitivity for 100% and the specificity for 66.67%. Patients with high NT-proBNP values (> 88.64 pg/mL) had a significantly increased risk of death during the days of following-up compared with those with low values (≤88.64 pg/mL). After adjustment for potential risk factors, NT-proBNP was independently correlated with in-hospital death. Conclusion: NT-proBNP might be an independent risk factor for in-hospital death in patients with severe COVID-19.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in China has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. The cardiac injury was dominate in the process. However, whether N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) predicted outcome of COVID-19 patients was unknown. The study initially enrolled 102 patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia from a continuous sample. After screening out the ineligible cases, 54 patients were analyzed in this study. Results found that patients with higher NT-proBNP (above 88.64 pg/mL) level had more risks of inhospital death. After adjusting for potential cofounders in separate modes, NT-proBNP presented as an independent risk factor of in-hospital death in patients with severe COVID-19. : medRxiv preprint Figure 1. The NT-proBNP for in-hospital death of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The area under the curve (AUC) of NT-proBNP was 0.909. The best cutoff of NT-proBNP for prediction in-hospital death was 88.64 pg/mL with the sensitivity of 100% and the specificity of 66.67%. 95%CI, 95% confidence interval. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is . https://doi.org/10. 1101 Figure 2. Kaplan-Meier plots showing the cumulative survival rate of COVID-19 patients who were stratified into two groups according to plasma NT-proBNP cutoff point at baseline (Dotted line, NT-proBNP ≤88.64 pg/ml, n=24; Solid line, NT-proBNP >88.64 pg/ml, n=30; log-rank test for trend, P<0.001).All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.

Aims The sex-related differences in the clinical outcomes of rhythm and safety after catheter ablation remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) in women and men. Methods and results The Medline and EMBASE databases were searched for published articles up to December 2018. Studies that met our predefined inclusion criteria were included. The primary endpoints were freedom from AF/atrial tachycardia (AT) recurrence, stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA), and all-cause mortality. After literature search and detailed assessment, 19 observational studies (151 370 patients; 34% women) were identified. Our analyses showed that the rate of freedom from AF/AT recurrence was lower in women than men at the 2.4-year follow-up [odds ratio (OR): 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69–0.81; P < 0.0001]. Moreover, women had an increased risk of stroke/TIA (OR: 1.42, 95% CI 1.21–1.67; P < 0.0001) and all-cause mortality (OR: 1.53, 95% CI 1.02–2.28; P = 0.04). Nevertheless, for the endpoint of all-cause mortality, there was no significant difference between the two genders in the subgroup of prospective studies (OR: 1.19, 95% CI 0.69–2.05; P = 0.53). Additionally, women were more likely to experience major complications compared with men (pericardial effusion/tamponade, major bleeding requiring transfusion, and pacemaker implantation). Conclusions Women who underwent catheter ablation of AF might experience lower efficacy and a higher risk of stroke/TIA and major complications than men. The reasons for these sex-related differences need to be further studied.

Topical or subconjunctival bevacizumab was relatively safe and well tolerated, but it had no statistically significant effect on preventing pterygium recurrence. A large-scale trial with a suitable dosage and a longer follow-up would be required to rule out the possibility of any treatment benefit.