Risk Factors for Mortality after COVID-19 in Patients with Preexisting Interstitial Lung Disease
Laure Gallay, Y. Uzunhan, Raphaël Borie, Romain Lazor, Pierre Rigaud, S. Marchand‐Adam, Sandrine Hirschi, Dominique Israël‐Biet, V. Valentin, Vincent Cottin
Abstract
Interestingly, we successfully isolated infectious virus from five of five samples from patients with Tx (obtained 4-28 d after admission to the ICU), but, in line with data from Wlfel and colleagues (9), we were unable to detect infectious virus after Day 7 in immunocompetent control patients (zero of four patients).Limitations.First, the sample size of our study is limited, but the significant findings with potential major impact on patient management are of great importance.Second, three patients remained under intensive care treatment on the day of data censoring, resulting in an unknown outcome.Third, some cases had incomplete documentation of clinical data, missing laboratory-testing results, or both.Conclusions.To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive report on COVID-19 in patients with a history of HSCT that focuses on virological parameters.In these patients, as compared with immunocompetent patients, prolonged shedding of infectious virus, viremia, and high viral loads in respiratory samples highlight the need of the immune system for viral control but also indicate virus-induced mortality and a higher risk for transmission to other patients and medical staff.