TY - GEN A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Krüger-Genge, Anne A1 - Franke, Ralf-Peter A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner T1 - COVID-19 and the endothelium T2 - Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation N2 - There is growing evidence that COVID-19 not only affects the lungs but beyond that the endothelial system. Recent studies showed that this can lead to microcirculatory impairments and in consequence to functional disorders of all inner organs. The combination of endothelial dysfunction with a generalized inflammatory state and complement elements may together contribute to the overall pro-coagulative state described in COVID-19 patients leading to venular as well as to arteriolar occlusions. KW - COVID-19 KW - endocytosis KW - endothelial cell dysfunction KW - endotheliitis Y1 - 2020 UR - https://content.iospress.com/articles/clinical-hemorheology-and-microcirculation/ch209007 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-209007 SN - 1875-8622 SN - 1386-0291 VL - 75 IS - 1 SP - 7 EP - 11 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Krieger, Volker A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner T1 - Herd immunity or suppression strategy to combat COVID-19 T2 - Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation N2 - Some months ago, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) broke out in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly around the world. Some states, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the USA initially focused on keeping the restrictions for economy and society as low as possible. The responsible authorities were of the opinion - and still are e.g. in Sweden - that it is sufficient enough to protect particularly vulnerable persons such as the elderly or people with pre-existing conditions. The idea behind this is that as soon as 60 to 70 percent of the population is infected with a pathogen, a so-called “herd immunity” has developed. However, the increasing numbers of deaths and modelling studies showed the expected overload of the hospitals. Therefore, most countries decided for a temporary lockdown with the exception of Sweden. Based on the number of the total population, three times more people died from COVID-19 in Sweden (2679 deaths per 10 million inhabitants) compared to Germany (6848 deaths per 80 million inhabitants). The comparison Sweden versus Taiwan is even worse because 1072 times more people died in Sweden based on the number of the population (6 deaths per 24 million inhabitants). KW - COVID-19 KW - strategy KW - Sweden KW - Taiwan KW - Germany Y1 - 2020 UR - https://content.iospress.com/articles/clinical-hemorheology-and-microcirculation/ch209006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-209006 SN - 1875-8622 SN - 1386-0291 VL - 75 IS - 1 SP - 13 EP - 17 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hoffmann, Stephanie A1 - Schiebel, Juliane A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Gremmels, Heinz-Detlef A1 - Spallek, Jacob T1 - COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: A Prospective Serological-Epidemiological Cohort Study in a Standard Care Hospital in Rural Germany T2 - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health N2 - Healthcare workers (HCW) play a vital role in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic control. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and the risk of COVID-19 infections in a cohort of HCW from four different risk groups (from intensive care unit to administration) of a hospital of a primary care level in rural Germany. The outcomes were monthly measures of antibody seroprevalence over a period of 6 months. Overall, a seroprevalence of 13.41% was determined, with significantly higher prevalence rates among HCW working in areas with more frequent contact to confirmed or suspected cases (30.30%, p = 0.003). The group specific differences in the risk of infection from COVID-19 were detected, as HCW groups with frequent exposure seemed to have an increased risk (RR = 3.18, p = 0.02; CI95 1.09–9.24). The findings contribute to the epidemiological understanding of the virus spread in an unvaccinated population group, which is highly relevant for the pandemic management. KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - immunity KW - antibody KW - healthcare KW - staff KW - COVID-19 KW - seroprevalence KW - pandemic Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10999 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010999 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 18 IS - 20 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Krüger-Genge, Anne A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Jung, Ernst Michael A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner A1 - Storsberg, J. T1 - Effects of gut microbial metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) on platelets and endothelial cells T2 - Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation N2 - Thrombotic events result from different pathologies and are the underlying causes of severe diseases like stroke or myocardial infarction. Recent basic research now revealed a link between food uptake, food conversion and gut metabolism. Gut microbial production of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) from dietary nutrients like choline, lecithin and L-carnitine was associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases. Within this review we give a systematic overview about the influence of TMAO on blood components like platelets and endothelial cells which both are involved as key players in thrombotic processes. In summary, a mechanistic correlation between the gut microbiome, TMAO and cardiovascular diseases becomes obvious and emphasizes to the significance of the intestinal microbiome. KW - Microbiome KW - trimethylamin-N-oxide KW - platelets KW - endothelial cells KW - atherosclerosis Y1 - 2020 UR - https://content.iospress.com/articles/clinical-hemorheology-and-microcirculation/ch209206 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-209206 SN - 1875-8622 SN - 1386-0291 VL - 76 IS - 2 SP - 309 EP - 316 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Krieger, Volker A1 - Hufert, Frank T1 - A comparison of mortality rates between European and Asian States T2 - Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-209008 SN - 1875-8622 SN - 1386-0291 VL - 75 IS - 1 SP - 3 EP - 5 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Krieger, Volker A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner T1 - How we should respond to the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 outbreak: A German perspective T2 - Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation N2 - BACKGROUND: In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic Germany missed to set up efficient containment measures. Consequently, the number of cases increased exponentially until a lockdown was implemented to suppress the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, Germany has a high capability for coronavirus lab testing and more than 30,000 ICU beds. These capabilities and the lockdown turned out to be an advantage to combat the pandemic and to prevent a health-system overload. AIM: The aim was to predict the plateau day of SARS-CoV-2 infections or deaths. RESULTS: The effect on the viral spread of the German measures taken and the impact on the peak of new infection cases is shown. By normalizing daily case numbers, the plateau day of the current outbreak in Germany could be calculated to be reached at April 12, 2020 (day 103 of 2020). CONCLUSION: Normalized case number curves are helpful to predict the time point at which no further new infections will occur if the epidemic situation remains stable. Upon reaching the plateau day during a lockdown phase, a residual time-period of about 2-3 weeks can be utilized to prepare a safe unlocking period. As can be learned from Asian countries such as South Korea and Taiwan there must be strict rules to keep the risk of infection low. Those include social distancing, face mask wearing in combination with digital contact tracing and serosurveillance studies. Following those rules, a safe dance around the infection curve allows to keep the population at a reduced infection rate. KW - Corona virus KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - COVID-19 KW - herd immunity KW - hammer and dance strategy Y1 - 2020 UR - https://content.iospress.com/articles/clinical-hemorheology-and-microcirculation/ch209004 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-209004 SN - 1875-8622 SN - 1386-0291 VL - 74 IS - 4 SP - 363 EP - 372 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hoffmann, Stephanie A1 - Schulze, Susanne A1 - Löffler, Antje A1 - Becker, Juliane A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Gremmels, Heinz-Detlef A1 - Holmberg, Christine A1 - Rapp, Michael A. A1 - Entringer, Sonja A1 - Spallek, Jacob T1 - Did the prevalence of depressive symptoms change during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multilevel analysis on longitudinal data from healthcare workers T2 - International Journal of Social Psychiatry N2 - Background: Healthcare workers (HCW) are at high risk to develop mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic because of additional work load, perceived stress, and exposure to patients with COVID-19. Currently, there are few studies on change over time in the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pandemic start among HCW. Thus, the aims of the current study were to examine whether depressive symptoms increased during the pandemic and were associated with perceived stress and own COVID-19 infection and workplace exposure to virus-infected patients. Methods: The cohort study used longitudinal data from HCW collected monthly (July 2020 till December 2020) during the first year of the pandemic before vaccination became available. The sample of n = 166 was drawn from a German hospital and included medical (e.g. nurses, therapists, and physicians) and administrative staff. Using multilevel models, we analyzed the change in depressive symptoms [assessed with General Depression Scale (GDS), a validated German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)] and its association with perceived stress across the study period. Laboratory-confirmed own infection was tested as a potential moderator in this context. Subscales of the GDS were used to examine change over time of depressive symptom modalities (e.g. emotional, somatic, and social interactions (β, 95% confidence interval). Results: Depression scores increased significantly during the study period (β = .03, 95% CI [0.02, 0.05]). Perceived stress was associated with depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, 0.14]) but did not change over time. Exposure to COVID-19 infection was associated with a higher increase of depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, .14]). Somatic symptoms of depression increased among medical HCW with workplace exposure to COVID-19 (β = .25, 95% CI [0.13, 0.38]), but not in administrators (β = .03, 95% CI [−0.04, 0.11]). Conclusion: Research is needed to identify factors that promote the reduction of depressive symptoms in medical HCW with exposition to COVID-19 patients. Awareness of infection protection measures should be increased. KW - Depressive symptoms KW - COVID-19 KW - pandemic KW - healthcare workers Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640231196737 SN - 0020-7640 VL - 70 IS - 1 SP - 87 EP - 98 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hoffmann, Stephanie A1 - Schulze, Susanne A1 - Löffler, Antje A1 - Becker, Juliane A1 - Hufert, Frank A1 - Gremmels, Heinz-Detlef A1 - Holmberg, Christine A1 - Rapp, Michael A. A1 - Entringer, Sonja A1 - Spallek, Jacob T1 - Depressive Symptome bei Beschäftigten im Gesundheitswesen während der COVID-19-Pandemie: Ergebnisse einer Kohortenstudie in einem Krankenhaus der Regelversorgung in Deutschland T2 - Gesundheitswesen N2 - Einleitung Bisher liegen in Deutschland wenig empirische Ergebnisse zu den Auswirkungen der COVID-19 Pandemie auf die seelische Gesundheit von Beschäftigten im Gesundheitswesen vor. In dieser Studie wird die zeitliche Entwicklung depressiver Symptome und der Zusammenhang mit a) der Stresswahrnehmung, b) der eigenen COVID-19-Infektion und c) der arbeitsplatzbezogenen COVID-19-Exposition untersucht. Methoden Die Kohortenstudie mit 91 Beschäftigten (90% wbl, x̅=45 Jr) eines Krankenhauses schloss (1) medizinisches, pflegerisches und therapeutisches sowie (2) administratives Personal im Zeitraum von Juli 2020 bis Dezember 2020 ein. Gemischte Modelle analysierten zeitliche Depressionswerte ('Allg. Depressionsskala‘) mit wahrgenommenem Stress ('Perceived Stress Scale'). Eine eigene COVID-19-Infektion (Laborbefund) wurde als Moderator getestet. Die zeitliche Entwicklung von Symptommodalitäten (u.a. somatisch) wurde nach beruflicher Exposition analysiert. Ergebnisse Die Depressionswerte stiegen insgesamt während des Studienzeitraums an (b=.03, .02-.05). Stressempfinden war mit depressiven Symptomen assoziiert (b=.12, .10-.14). Eine eigene Infektion war mit einem höheren Anstieg assoziiert (b=.06, .01-.10). Somatische Depressionssymptome nahmen nur bei beruflichem Kontakt mit COVID-19 zu (b=.25, .13-.38). Schlussfolgerung Die Zunahme somatischer depressiver Symptome bei Beschäftigten mit beruflichem Kontakt zu COVID-19 zeigt einen Bedarf an Forschung über und Ressourcen für Gesundheitsschutz und -förderung. Das Bewusstsein für Schutzmaßnahmen sollte gestärkt werden. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0043-1770597 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-1770597 VL - 85 IS - 809 ER -