Dear Colleagues,
These are concerning times for our patients and ourselves. We have put together some useful resources on Covid-19 for your benefit.
In addition to the information on this page, please stay aware of the latest information on the COVID-19 outbreak, through your national and local public health authorites.
Statement from international renal societies
Read the joint statement about the impact of COVID-19 on kidney patients here.
Renal resources
ERA-EDTA have produced resources for nephrologists that include:
- Patient information (in English only)
- Professionals’ advice for specific groups of patients
- Results for the ERACODA database. View the first study report (7 April 2020) here.
- Additional local protocols (not endorsed by ERA-EDTA)
- Links to Q&A webinars about Covid-19
- Expert opinion on the management of (adult) transplant patients with Covid-19 from the Descartes working group
- Extensive further links
ASPN, our sister organisation in North America, has a similar list of resources from North America.
IPNA has convened a Covid initiative chaired by Prof Pierre Cochat. There is a page on the IPNA website dedicated to resources, including guidelines in English, French, Spanish and Chinese.
The American Society of Transplantation (AST) has produced an FAQ page aimed at transplant patients.
The British Renal Association has published an extensive list of guidelines and resources for kidney patients and the British Association for Paediatric Nephrology has published its own guidance for children with kidney disease (this was updated on 27 May 2020).
The British National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a COVID-19 rapid guideline for children and young people who are immunocompromised.
Michel Tsimaratos has a page of Covid-19 resources that is updated regularly. The page is in French but can easily be translated with Google if needed.
Position statement of the ESC council on hypertension on ACEi and ARB. See also the South et al, Nature Rev Nephrol article for more reading on this (Literature section below).
NephJC have also published information about ACEI and ARB use with Covid-19
Nephcure guidance for parents of paediatric kidney patients
For children with the multi-system inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19, the US-based CDC and the British RCPCH have provided guidance.
General resources
European Centre for Disease Control
European Public Health Alliance
Information on drug interactions with experimental Covid-19 therapy from the Liverpool Drug Interaction Group.
Literature
- The publication-tracking site Publons has a Covid-19 page where you can search by keyword, making it possible to select all the nephrology-associated publications, and the opportunity to review and score papers for the benefit of others.
- View the American Academy of Pediatric Covid-19 collection here
- The general paediatrics resource website Don’t forget the bubbles! has a good evidence summary of Covid-19 in children.
- Both the Chinese Journal of Nephrology and Chinese Journal of Evidence-based Pediatrics are publishing extensively on the impact of Covid-19 on their respective patient groups. Much of their literature is in Chinese but some abstracts are in English.
Many peer-reviewed papers on Covid-19 have been now published in other journals. The selection below will be of particular interest to paediatric nephrologists:
COVID-19 in children with kidney disease
- The severity of COVID-19 in children on immunosuppressive medication. Marlais et al, 2020. Lancet Child Adolesc Health.
- SARS-CoV-2 infection in Spanish children with chronic kidney pathologies. Melgosa et al, 2020. Pediatr Nephrol.
Kawasaki-like syndrome associated with coronavirus in children
- See guideline information above
- Association between a novel human coronavirus and Kawasaki disease. Esper et al, 2020. J Infect Dis.
- Hyperinflammatory shock in children during COVID-19 pandemic. Riphagen et al, 2020. Lancet.
- Kawasaki-like disease: emerging complication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Viner and Whittaker, 2020. Lancet.
- An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study. Verdoni et al, 2020. Lancet.
- Outbreak of Kawasaki disease in children during COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective observational study in Paris, France. Toubiana et al, 2020. MedRxiv.
- Acute heart failure in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in the context of global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Belhadjer et al, 2020. Circulation.
- Cardiac dysfunction and thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure inflammation phenotype in a severe paediatric case of COVID-19. Latimer et al, 2020. Lancet Child Adolesc Health.
Paediatric epidemiology
- Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in children: experts’ consensus statement. Shen et al, 2020. World J Pediatr.
- SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. Lu et al, NEJM.
- Screening and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children in Madrid, Spain. Tagarro et al, 2020, JAMA Pediatr
- Detection of covid-19 in children in early january 2020 in Wuhan, China. Liu et al, 2020. NEJM.
- Children with covid-19 in pediatric emergency departments in Italy. Parri and Lenge. 2020, NEJM
- Evidence of a novel human coronavirus that is associated with respiratory tract disease in infants and young children. Esper et al, 2020. J Infect Dis.
- Multicentre Italian study of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents, preliminary data as at 10 April 2020. Garazzino et al, 2020. Eurosurveillance.
- COVID-19 in children with cancer in New York City. Boulad et al, 2020. J Am Med Soc Oncol.
- Children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a review of demographic, clinical, laboratory and imaging features in 2,597 pediatric patients. Cui et al, 2020.
- Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized and critically ill children and adolescents with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at a tertiary care medical center in New York City. Chao et al, 2020. J Pediatr.
- School closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: an effective intervention at the global level? Esposito and Principi, 2020. JAMA Pediatr.
- Susceptibility to and transmission of COVID-19 amongst children and adolescents compared with adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Viner et al, 2020.
- Key clinical research priorities for the pediatric community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Noel et al, 2020. Pediatr Research.
SARS-Cov-2 and the kidney
- The novel coronavirus 2019 epidemic and kidneys. Naicker et al, 2020. Kidney Int.
- Renal histopathological analysis of 26 postmortem findings of patients with COVID-19 in China. Hu et al, 2020. Kidney Int.
- How COVID-19 has changed the management of glomerular diseases. Bomback et al, 2020. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol.
- COVID-19-associated nephritis: early warning for disease severity and complications? Gross et al, 2020. Lancet.
- COVID-19 therapeutic options for patients with kidney disease. Izzedine et al, 2020. Kidney Int.
Covid-19 and transplantation
- Coronavirus disease 2019 and transplantation: a view from the inside. Andrea et al, 2020. Am J Transplant.
- COVID-19: a global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic. Kumar et al, 2020. Am J Transplant.
- Tocilizumab for hemophagocytic syndrome in a kidney transplant recipient with COVID-19. Faguer et al, 2020. Ann Int Med.
- How should I manage immunosuppression in a kidney transplant patient with COVID-19? An ERA-EDTA DESCARTES expert opinion. Maggiore et al, 2020. NDT.
Covid-19 and the renin-angiotensin system
- Controversies of renin–angiotensin system inhibition during the COVID-19 pandemic. South et al, 2020. Nature Rev Nephrol.
- Association between angiotensin blockade and incidence of influenza in the United Kingdom. Chung et al, 2020. NEJM.
- Use of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors and risk of COVID-19 requiring admission to hospital: a case-population study. de Abajo et al, 2020. Lancet.
- Hypertension, renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibition, and COVID-19. Williams and Zhang, 2020. Lancet.
- Nasal gene expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in children and adults. Bunyavanich et al, 2020. JAMA.
Immunological aspects of Covid-19
- COVID-19: immunopathology and its implications for therapy. Cao X, 2020. Nature Rev Immunol.
- Preventing COVID-19-induced pneumonia with anticytokine therapy. Monteleone et al, 2020. Lancet Rheumatol.
- Endothelial cell infection and endotheliitis in COVID-19. Varga et al, 2020. Lancet.
- On the alert for cytokine storm: Immunopathology in COVID‐19. Henderson et al, 2020. Arthrit Rheumatol.
- Effect of convalescent plasma therapy on viral shedding and survival in COVID-19 patients. Zeng et al, 2020. J Infect Dis.
- Covid-19 in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases — case series from New York. Haberman and Alexrad, 2020. NEJM.
- The immune system of children: the key to understanding SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility? Carsetti et al, 2020. Lancet Child Adolesc Health.
- Interleukin-1 blockade with high-dose anakinra in patients with COVID-19, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and hyperinflammation: a retrospective cohort study. Cavalli et al, 2020. Lancet Rheumatol.
Testing for COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
- Interpreting diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2. Sethuraman et al, 2020. JAMA.
- Interpreting a covid-19 test result. Watson et al, 2020. BMJ.
Dialyis issues
- Could ferritin help the screening for COVID-19 in hemodialysis patients? Bataille et al, 2020. Kidney Int
- Recommendations for the prevention, mitigation and containment of the emerging SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic in haemodialysis centres. Basile et al, 2020. Nephrol Dial Transplant.
- Asymptomatic seroconversion of immunoglobulins to SARS-CoV-2 in a pediatric dialysis unit. Hains et al, 2020. JAMA.
- SARS-CoV2 in the peritoneal waste in a patient treated with peritoneal dialysis. Gisella et al, 2020. Kidney Int.
Child health
- Promoting and supporting children’s health and healthcare during COVID-19 – International Paediatric Association Position Statement. Klein et al, 2020. Arch Dis Child.
- Risks to children and young people during covid-19 pandemic. Green, 2020. BMJ.
Research
ESPN in partnership with ERKNet are collecting cases of Covid-19 in children with kidney disease. The SurveyMonkey survey can be accessed here.
For the benefit of all our patients, please try to record information on the presentation and complications all your Covid-19 patients. The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes if you have the case record to hand.
The first report from the survey was published in May 2020 in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
Patient resources
The professional societies’ resources above contain many pages of patient information.
In addition, the following links may be useful:
Kidney Care UK advice on coronavirus for kidney patients
Coronavirus – a book for children. Free on-line book in English, illustrated by Gruffalo illustrator Axel Schleffer, explaining coronavirus to children.
| We wish all the best to you and our patients. Stay healthy! ESPN president on behalf ESPN Council |