@article {762, title = {Assessing the Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Lineages and Mutations on Patient Survival.}, journal = {Viruses}, volume = {14}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Aug 27}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 still remains a global public health problem. Successive waves of infection have produced new SARS-CoV-2 variants with new mutations for which the impact on COVID-19 severity and patient survival is uncertain.

METHODS: A total of 764 SARS-CoV-2 genomes, sequenced from COVID-19 patients, hospitalized from 19th February 2020 to 30 April 2021, along with their clinical data, were used for survival analysis.

RESULTS: A significant association of B.1.1.7, the alpha lineage, with patient mortality (log hazard ratio (LHR) = 0.51, C.I. = [0.14,0.88]) was found upon adjustment by all the covariates known to affect COVID-19 prognosis. Moreover, survival analysis of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome revealed 27 of them were significantly associated with higher mortality of patients. Most of these mutations were located in the genes coding for the S, ORF8, and N proteins.

CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates how a combination of genomic and clinical data can provide solid evidence for the impact of viral lineage on patient survival.

}, keywords = {COVID-19, Genome, Viral, Humans, mutation, Pandemics, Phylogeny, SARS-CoV-2}, issn = {1999-4915}, doi = {10.3390/v14091893}, author = {Loucera, Carlos and Perez-Florido, Javier and Casimiro-Soriguer, Carlos S and Ortuno, Francisco M and Carmona, Rosario and Bostelmann, Gerrit and Mart{\'\i}nez-Gonz{\'a}lez, L Javier and Mu{\~n}oyerro-Mu{\~n}iz, Dolores and Villegas, Rom{\'a}n and Rodr{\'\i}guez-Ba{\~n}o, Jes{\'u}s and Romero-G{\'o}mez, Manuel and Lorusso, Nicola and Garcia-Le{\'o}n, Javier and Navarro-Mar{\'\i}, Jose M and Camacho-Martinez, Pedro and Merino-Diaz, Laura and Salazar, Adolfo de and Vi{\~n}uela, Laura and Lepe, Jose A and Garc{\'\i}a, Federico and Dopazo, Joaquin} } @article {745, title = {Real world evidence of calcifediol or vitamin D prescription and mortality rate of COVID-19 in a retrospective cohort of hospitalized Andalusian patients.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 03}, pages = {23380}, abstract = {

COVID-19 is a major worldwide health problem because of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and mortality. Several lines of evidence have suggested a relationship between the vitamin D endocrine system and severity of COVID-19. We present a survival study on a retrospective cohort of 15,968 patients, comprising all COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Andalusia between January and November 2020. Based on a central registry of electronic health records (the Andalusian Population Health Database, BPS), prescription of vitamin D or its metabolites within 15-30~days before hospitalization were recorded. The effect of prescription of vitamin D (metabolites) for other indication previous to the hospitalization was studied with respect to patient survival. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and hazard ratios support an association between prescription of these metabolites and patient survival. Such association was stronger for calcifediol (Hazard Ratio, HR = 0.67, with 95\% confidence interval, CI, of [0.50-0.91]) than for cholecalciferol (HR = 0.75, with 95\% CI of [0.61-0.91]), when prescribed 15~days prior hospitalization. Although the relation is maintained, there is a general decrease of this effect when a longer period of 30~days prior hospitalization is considered (calcifediol HR = 0.73, with 95\% CI [0.57-0.95] and cholecalciferol HR = 0.88, with 95\% CI [0.75, 1.03]), suggesting that association was stronger when the prescription was closer to the hospitalization.

}, keywords = {Calcifediol, COVID-19, Female, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Retrospective Studies, Spain, Survival Analysis, Vitamin D}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-02701-5}, author = {Loucera, Carlos and Pe{\~n}a-Chilet, Maria and Esteban-Medina, Marina and Mu{\~n}oyerro-Mu{\~n}iz, Dolores and Villegas, Rom{\'a}n and L{\'o}pez-Miranda, Jos{\'e} and Rodr{\'\i}guez-Ba{\~n}o, Jes{\'u}s and T{\'u}nez, Isaac and Bouillon, Roger and Dopazo, Joaquin and Quesada Gomez, Jose Manuel} } @article {652, title = {[Impact assessment on data protection in research projects].}, journal = {Gac Sanit}, volume = {34}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep - Oct}, pages = {521-523}, abstract = {

Recent changes in European regulations for personal data protection still allow the use of health data for research purposes, but they have set the Impact Assessment on Data Protection as an instrument for reflection and risk analysis in the process of data processing. The publication of a guide for facilitates this impact assessment, although it is not directly applicable to research projects. Experience in a specific project is detailed, showing how the context of the treatment becomes relevant with respect to the data characteristics. Carrying out an impact assessment is an opportunity to ensure compliance with the principles of data protection in an increasingly complex environment with greater ethical challenges.

}, keywords = {Computer Security, Humans}, issn = {1578-1283}, doi = {10.1016/j.gaceta.2019.10.006}, author = {Garc{\'\i}a-Le{\'o}n, Francisco Javier and Villegas-Portero, Rom{\'a}n and Goicoechea-Salazar, Juan Antonio and Mu{\~n}oyerro-Mu{\~n}iz, Dolores and Dopazo, Joaquin} }