Dataset Information

COVID-19 and conjunctivitis: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 is a disease first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, causes by a SARS-COV-2 virus infection. By 27 October 2020, 43,921,473 confirmed cases were reported worldwide, with 1,166,389 COVID-19 deaths. Conjunctivitis has been reported in adults and pediatric patients with COVID-19.

Objective

The aim of this meta-analysis is to estimate the odd Ratio (ORs) of conjunctivitis in patients with COVID-19.

Methods

A systematic review and meta-analysis have been performed using the PubMed and Google Scholar literature search. The ORs of conjunctivitis in adults and pediatric patients is the outcome of this meta-analysis.

Results

There have been 1041 articles published since the outbreak in December 2019, according to the latest literature. For the meta-analysis, 20 studies with a total of 3383 participants were included. The odds ratio (ORs) of conjunctivitis was 0.01 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.00-0.02). No bias has been reported.

Conclusion

Conjunctivitis is the most common ocular manifestations reported in adults. This comprehensive meta-analysis quantifies the existing evidence linking conjunctivitis with COVID-19 and highlights the high percentage of heterogeneity that is shown in the current studies. Finally, it offers a single review article which includes all the current articles available for COVID-19 and conjunctivitis in adults and children.

SUBMITTER: Al-Namaeh M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7994922 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundWith the continued high prevalence of chlamydia worldwide and high risk of transfer from mothers to their infant during delivery, a need for safe and effective therapies for infants who acquire a chlamydial infection remains. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of antibiotic treatments, including oral erythromycin, azithromycin, and trimethoprim, for neonatal chlamydial conjunctivitis.MethodsWe searched Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) from their inception to July 14, 2017. We included randomized and nonrandomized studies that evaluated the effects of erythromycin, azithromycin, or trimethoprim in neonates with chlamydial conjunctivitis. A meta-analysis using a random-effects generic inverse-variance method was performed, and the certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.ResultsWe found 12 studies (n = 292 neonates) and were able to meta-analyze 7 studies that used erythromycin at a dose of 50 mg/kg body weight per day for 14 days. The clinical and microbiological cure were 96% (95% confidence interval [CI], 94%-100%) and 97% (95% CI, 95%-99%), respectively, and adverse gastrointestinal effects occurred in 14% (95% CI, 1%-28%) of the neonates. The microbiological cure in the study that assessed azithromycin at 20 mg/kg per day were 60% (95% CI, 27%-93%) when it was given in a single dose and 86% (95% CI, 61%-100%) when given in a 3-day course. Two studies reported compliance with treatments, and 1 study reported no pyloric stenosis events. Because of the risk of bias and the few neonates included across the studies, the certainty of evidence is low to very low. No studies assessed trimethoprim.ConclusionsAlthough evidence suggests that erythromycin at 50 mg/kg per day for 14 days results in higher numbers of cure than does azithromycin, compliance and risk of pyloric stenosis related to their use for other infections in neonates will factor into treatment recommendations. More data are needed to compare these treatments directly.

Project description:BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can induce conjunctivitis signs and symptoms. However, limited information is available on their impact on COVID-19 disease phenotype. Quantification of ocular signs/symptoms can provide a rapid, non-invasive proxy for predicting clinical phenotype. Moreover, the existence and entity of conjunctival viral shedding is still debated. This has relevant implications to manage disease spread. The purpose of this study was to investigate conjunctivitis signs and symptoms and their correlation with clinical parameters, conjunctival viral shedding in patients with COVID-19.MethodsFifty-three patients hospitalized between February 25th and September 16th, 2020 at the San Raffaele Hospital, in Milan, Lombardy, Italy with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 were evaluated. Presence of interstitial pneumonia was confirmed with computed tomography scan imaging. Ocular signs and symptoms, anosmia/ageusia, clinical/laboratory parameters, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from nasopharyngeal and conjunctival swabs for COVID-19 virus were analyzed.ResultsForty-six out of 53 patients showed a positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the time of conjunctival evaluation. All the conjunctival swabs were negative. Conjunctivitis symptoms were present in 37% of patients. Physician-assessed ocular signs were detected in 28% of patients. Patients with ocular symptoms or signs tended to be older: 76.8 years (62.4-83.3) vs 57.2 years (48.1-74.0), p = 0.062 and had a longer hospitalization: 38 days (18-49) vs. 14 days (11-21), p = 0.005. Plasma levels of Interleukin-6 were higher in patients with signs or symptoms in comparison with those without them: 43.5 pg/ml (19.7-49.4) vs. 8 pg/ml (3.6-20.7), p = 0.02. Red cell distribution width was also significantly higher: 15 (14.3-16.7) vs 13.2 (12.4-14.4), p = 0.001.ConclusionsWe found that over a third of the patients had ocular signs or symptoms. These had higher prevalence in patients with a more severe infection. No viral shedding was detected in the conjunctiva. Our results suggest that prompt detection of conjunctivitis signs/symptoms can serve as a helpful proxy to predict COVID-19 clinical phenotype.