Faculty Collaboration Database

The hospitalization rate and clinical characteristics of mucormycosis prior and during COVID-19 pandemic: A single-center study. J Infect Dev Ctries 2023 Jun 30;17(6):791-799

Date

07/05/2023

Pubmed ID

37406065

DOI

10.3855/jidc.17371

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85164033989 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   3 Citations

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There have been some reports of the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and mucormycosis. This study aims to compare the hospitalization rates and clinical characteristics of mucormycosis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODOLOGY: In this retrospective study, we compared the hospitalization rate of mucormycosis patients in Namazi hospital in Southern Iran for two periods of 40 months. We defined July 1st, 2018 to February 17th, 2020, as the pre-COVID-19 period and February 18th, 2020, to September 30th, 2021, as the COVID-19 period. In addition, a quadrupled group of hospitalized patients with age and sex-matched SARS-COV-2 infection without any sign of mucormycosis was selected as the control group for COVID-associated mucormycosis.

RESULT: In the total of 72 mucormycosis patients in the COVID period, 54 patients had a clinical history and a positive RT-PCR, which confirms the diagnosis of SARS-COV2 infection. The hospitalization rate of mucormycosis showed an increase of + 306% (95% CI: + 259%, + 353%) from a monthly average value of 0.26 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14, 0.38) in the pre-COVID period to 1.06 in the COVID period. The use of corticosteroids prior to the initiation of hospitalization (p ≤ 0.01), diabetes (DM) (p = 0.04), brain involvement (p = 0.03), orbit involvement (p = 0.04), and sphenoid sinus invasion (p ≤ 0.01) were more common in patients with mucormycosis during the COVID period.

CONCLUSIONS: In high-risk patients, especially diabetics, special care to avoid the development of mucormycosis must be taken into account in patients with SARS-COV-2 infection considered for treatment with corticosteroids.

Author List

Estakhr M, Ghotbi Z, Rostamihosseinkhani M, Hooshmandi E, Janipour M, Ostovan VR, Fadakar N, Bazrafshan H, Bahrami Z, Rahimi-Jaberi A, Poursadeghfard M, Nazeri M, Kouhi P, Petramfar P, Izadi S, Barzegar Z, Nikzadeh E, Sasannia S, Arsang-Jang S, Tabrizi R, Khademi B, Kohandel-Shirazi M, Salehi MS, Ashjazadeh N, Khademi B, Ashraf MJ, Eilami O, Roudgari A, Moghaddami M, Zomorodian K, Badali H, Borhani-Haghighi A

Author

Shahram Arsang-Jang Postdoctoral Fellow in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Female
Hospitalization
Humans
Male
Mucormycosis
Pandemics
RNA, Viral
Retrospective Studies