Experimental Model and Subject Details
Blood was sampled from patients with CAP and sepsis and CAP by SARS-CoV-2 of either gender within the first 24 h of hospital admission (Table 1). CAP was defined as the presence of new infiltrate in chest X-ray in a patient without any contact with any healthcare facility the last 90 days; sepsis was defined by the Sepsis-3 criteria (Singer et al., 2016). COVID was diagnosed for patients with CAP confirmed by chest X-ray or chest computed tomography and positive molecular testing of respiratory secretions. For patients who required MV, blood sampling was performed within the first 24 h from MV and results were used for this analysis. Exclusion criteria were infection by the human immunodeficiency virus; neutropenia; and any previous intake of immunosuppressive medication (corticosteroids, anti-cytokine biologicals, and biological response modifiers). SRF was defined as severe decrease of the respiratory ratio necessitating intubation and mechanical ventilation. The studies were conducted under the 78/17 approval of the National Ethics Committee of Greece; the 23/12.08.2019 approval of the Ethics Committee of Sotiria Athens General Hospital; and the 26.02.2019 approval of the Ethics Committee of ATTIKON University General Hospital. Written informed consent was provided by patients or by first-degree relatives in case of patients unable to consent.
All data of patients with bacterial CAP screened for participation in the randomized clinical trial with the acronym PROVIDE (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03332225) were used. All patients admitted for CAP by SARS-CoV-2 from March 3 until March 30, 2020 participated in the study. No randomization to experimental groups was needed according to the study design.