Browsing by Author "Koritala, Thoyaja"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Colorectal cancer in patients with SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis
    (BMC, 2022-09-12) Alhumaid, Saad; Al Mutair, Abbas; Busubaih, Jawad S.; Al Dossary, Nourah; Alsuliman, Murtadha; Baltyour, Sarah A.; Alissa, Ibrahim; Al Hassar, Hassan I.; Al Aithan, Noor A.; Albassri, Hani A.; AlOmran, Suliman A.; ALGhazal, Raed M.; Busbaih, Ahmed; Alsalem, Nasser A.; Alagnam, Waseem; Alyousef, Mohammed Y.; Alseffay, Abdulaziz U.; Al Aish, Hussain A.; Aldiaram, Ali; Al Eissa, Hisham A.; Alhumaid, Murtadha A.; Bukhamseen, Ali N.; Al Mutared, Koblan M.; Aljwisim, Abdullah H.; Twibah, Abdullah M.; AlSaeed, Meteab M.; Alkhalaf, Hussien A.; ALShakhs, Fatemah M.; Koritala, Thoyaja; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A.; Dhama, Kuldeep; Rabaan, Ali A.; Al-Omari, Awad; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) are more likely to develop severe course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and experience increased risk of mortality compared to SARS-CoV-2 patients without CRC. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in CRC patients and analyse the demographic parameters, clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes in CRC patients with COVID-19 illness. Methods: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Proquest, Medline, Embase, Pubmed, CINAHL, Wiley online library, Scopus and Nature for studies on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in CRC patients, published from December 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, with English language restriction. Effect sizes of prevalence were pooled with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Sub-group analyses were performed to minimize heterogeneity. Binary logistic regression model was used to explore the effect of various demographic and clinical characteristics on patient's final treatment outcome (survival or death). Results: Of the 472 papers that were identified, 69 articles were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis (41 cohort, 16 case-report, 9 case-series, 2 cross-sectional, and 1 case-control studies). Studies involving 3362 CRC patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (all patients were adults) were analyzed. The overall pooled proportions of CRC patients who had laboratory-confirmed community-acquired and hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections were 8.1% (95% CI 6.1 to 10.1, n = 1308, 24 studies, I2 98%, p = 0.66), and 1.5% (95% CI 1.1 to 1.9, n = 472, 27 studies, I2 94%, p < 0.01). The median patient age ranged from 51.6 years to 80 years across studies. The majority of the patients were male (n = 2243, 66.7%) and belonged to White (Caucasian) (n = 262, 7.8%), Hispanic (n = 156, 4.6%) and Asian (n = 153, 4.4%) ethnicity. The main source of SARS-CoV-2 infection in CRC patients was community-acquired (n = 2882, 85.7%; p = 0.014). Most of those SARS-CoV-2 patients had stage III CRC (n = 725, 21.6%; p = 0.036) and were treated mainly with surgical resections (n = 304, 9%) and chemotherapies (n = 187, 5.6%), p = 0.008. The odd ratios of death were significantly high in patients with old age (≥ 60 years) (OR 1.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.96; p < 0.001), male gender (OR 1.44, 95% CI 0.41-0.47; p < 0.001) CRC stage III (OR 1.54, 95% CI 0.02-1.05; p = 0.041), CRC stage IV (OR 1.69, 95% CI 0.17-1.2; p = 0.009), recent active treatment with chemotherapies (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.5-0.66; p = 0.023) or surgical resections (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.8-0.73; p = 0.016) and admission to ICU (OR 1.88, 95% CI 0.85-1.12; p < 0.001) compared to those who survived. Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 infection in CRC patient is not uncommon and results in a mortality rate of 26.2%. Key determinants that lead to increased mortality in CRC patients infected with COVID-19 include older age (≥ 60 years old); male gender; Asian and Hispanic ethnicity; if SARS-CoV-2 was acquired from hospital source; advanced CRC (stage III and IV); if patient received chemotherapies or surgical treatment; and if patient was admitted to ICU, ventilated or experienced ARDS.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    COVID-19 Infection and Guillain-Barre Syndrome: A Case Series
    (Cureus, 2022-02-07) Carpenter, Kendal; Iqbal, Ayman; Singh, Romil; Deepika, Keerti; Koritala, Thoyaja; Jain, Nitesh; Alur, Ram Sanjeev; Adhikari, Ramesh; Mellekate, Vishwas S.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought about an unprecedented time. Multiple systemic complications have been recognized with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as it can do much more than affect the respiratory system. One of the intriguing neurological complications is Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). We reviewed three cases in which patients presented with GBS following COVID-19 infection. All three cases had positive lumbar puncture results with albumino-cytological dissociation. Each patient was treated with plasmapheresis and improved clinically. Although an exact causal relationship between COVID-19 and GBS cannot be drawn from this case series alone, it signifies the importance of this complication. It warrants further studies to establish the causal relationship. One should have a high suspicion for acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP) in patients presenting with acute onset of ascending weakness following COVID-19 infection.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Implication of the emergence of the delta (B.1.617.2) variants on vaccine effectiveness
    (Springer, 2022-06) Al‑Tawfiq, Jaffar A.; Koritala, Thoyaja; Alhumaid, Saad; Barry, Mazin; Alshukairi, Abeer N.; Temsah, Mohamad‑Hani; Al Mutair, Abbas; Rabaan, Ali; Tirupathi, Raghavendra; Gautret, Philippe; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Introduction: COVID-19 vaccines have been developed to compact the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and have been administered to people all over the world. These vaccines have been quite effective in reducing the possibility of severe illness, hospitalization and death. However, the recent emergence of Variants of Concern specifically the delta variant, B.1.617.2, had resulted in additional waves of the pandemic. Methods: We aim to review the literature to understand the transmission and disease severity, and determine the efficacy of the current COVID-19 vaccines. We searched Pubmed, Scopus, and Embase till August 4th 2021, and used the search terms "delta variant", "vaccinations"," breakthrough infections", and "neutralizing antibody". For the meta-analysis, 21 studies were screened in particular and five articles (148,071 cases) were included in the study, and only four were analyzed in the meta-analysis. Results: In this review, both in vitro and in vivo studies showed significant reductions in neutralization rates against delta variants for vaccinated individuals and convalescent patients with prior history of COVID-19. However, There was a lower incidence of infection with SARS-CoV-2 due to Delta variant was found after the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. Conclusion: In fully vaccinated individuals, symptomatic infection with the delta variant was significantly reduced, and therefore, vaccinations play an important role to assist the fight against delta variant.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A narrative review of emergency use authorization versus full FDA approval and its effect on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy
    (University of Saler, 2021-09-10) Koritala, Thoyaja; Hussain, Akbar; Pleshkova, Yelena; Dondapati, Lavanya; Tirupathi, Raghavendra; Rabaan, Ali A.; Al Mutair, Abbas; Alhumaid, Saad; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A.; Kashyap, Rahul; Medicine, School of Medicine
    COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of many with its devastating mortality and morbidity. Acquisition of herd immunity is one way to mitigate the spread of infection. Many factors influence the acceptance of vaccination including the regulatory process of the vaccines. This review article will briefly summarize the Emergency Use Authorization, Full FDA Approval process and highlight how the key factors affecting the vaccination hesitancy, are being influenced by the lack of Full FDA Approval.