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Introduction. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes high mortality. The objective of this study is to determine whether the arterial pressure of oxygen/inspiratory fraction of oxygen (PaO2/FiO2) 24 h after invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and the difference between PaO2/FiO2 at 24 h after IMV and PaO2/FiO2 before admission to IMV (ΔPaO2/FiO2 24 h) are predictors of survival in patients with ARDS due to COVID-19. Methods. Aretrospective cohort study was conducted that included patients with ARDS due to COVID-19 in IMV admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in southern Peru from April 2020 to April 2021. The ROC curves and the Youden index were used to establish the cut-off point for PaO2/FiO2 at 24 h of IMV and ΔPaO2/FiO2 at 24 h associated with mortality. The association with mortality was determined by Cox regression, calculating the crude (cHR) and adjusted (aHR) risk ratios, with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results. Two hundred patients were analyzed. The average age was 54.29 years, 79% were men, and 25.5% (n = 51) died. The cut-off point calculated for PaO2/FiO2 24 h after IMV and ΔPaO2/FiO2 24 h was 222.5 and 109.5, respectively. Those participants with a value below the cut-off point of ΔPaO2/FiO2 24 h and PaO2/FiO2 24 h after IMV had higher mortality, aHR = 3.32 (CI 95% [1.82-6.07]) and aHR = 2.87 (CI 95% [1.48-5.57]) respectively. Conclusion. PaO2/FiO2 24 h after IMV and ΔPaO2/FiO2 24 h in patients diagnosed with ARDS due to COVID-19 on IMV were associated with higher hospital mortality. These findings are helpful to identify those patients with a higher risk of dying on admission to the ICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to describe the main demographic, clinical, laboratory and therapeutic characteristics and to identify whether they are associated with mortality in tracheostomized patients., Material and Methods.: Retrospective cohort study in adult patients diagnosed with COVID-19, admitted to ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and requiring tracheostomy. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and treatment data were obtained from the medical records of patients admitted to Hospital III Daniel Alcides Carrión in Tacna. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for survival analysis and hazard ratios (HR) with their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated., Results.: We evaluated 73 patients, 72.6% were men, the most common comorbidities were obesity (68.5%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (35.6%), and arterial hypertension (34.2%). Thirty-seven percent of the participants died during their stay at the ICU. The median time from intubation to tracheostomy and the duration of tracheostomy was 17 (RIC: 15-21) and 21 (RIC: 3-39) days, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the factors associated with mortality were procalcitonin > 0.50 ng/dL at the time of tracheostomy (HRa: 2.40 95%CI: 1.03-5.59) and a PaO2/FiO2 ratio less than or equal to 150 mmHg (HRa: 4.44 95%CI: 1.56-12.60)., Conclusions.: The factors associated with mortality at the time of tracheostomy were procalcitonin > 0.50 ng/dL and a PaO2/FiO2 ratio less than or equal to 150 mmHg.

Introduction: Previously, we reported the frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and KRAS mutations in nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in Latin America. The EGFR mutation frequency was found between Asian (40%) and Caucasian (15%) populations. Here, we report the updated distribution of NSCLC mutations., Methods: A total of 5738 samples from NSCLC patients from Argentina (1713), Mexico (1417), Colombia (1939), Peru (393), Panama (174), and Costa Rica (102) were genotyped for EGFR and KRAS., Results: The median patient age was 62.2 ± 12.3 years; 53.5% were women, 46.7% had a history of smoking, and 95.2% had adenocarcinoma histology. The frequency of EGFR mutations was 26.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 24.9-27.1; Argentina, 14.4% [12.8-15.6]; México, 34.3% [31.9-36.7]; Colombia, 24.7% [22.8-26.6]; Peru, 51.1% [46.2-55.9]; Panamá, 27.3 [20.7-33.9]; and Costa Rica, 31.4% [22.4-40.4]). The frequency of KRAS mutations was 14.0% (9.1-18.9). In patients with adenocarcinoma, EGFR mutations were independently associated with gender (30.7% females vs. 18.4% males; p < 0.001), nonsmoker status (27.4% vs. 17.1%, p < 0.001), ethnicity (mestizo/indigenous, 35.3% vs. Caucasian, 13.7%, p < 0.001), and the absence of KRAS mutation (38.1% vs. 4.7%; p < 0.001). The overall response rate to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors was 60.6% (95% CI, 52-69), with a median progression-free survival and overall survival of 15.9 (95% CI, 12.420.6) and 32 months (95% CI, 26.5-37.6), respectively., Conclusion: Our findings support the genetic heterogeneity of NSCLC in Latin America, confirming that the frequency of EGFR mutations is intermediate between that observed in the Asian and Caucasian populations.