Clinical features and viral kinetics in a rapidly cured patient with Ebola virus disease: a case report.

BACKGROUND: A detailed description of viral kinetics, duration of virus shedding, and intraviral evolution in different body sites is warranted to understand Ebola virus pathogenesis. Patients with Ebola virus infections admitted to university hospitals provide a unique opportunity to do such in-depth virological investigations. We describe the clinical, biological, and virological follow-up of a case of Ebola virus disease. METHODS: A 43-year-old medical doctor who contracted an Ebola virus infection in Sierra Leone on Nov 16, 2014 (day 1), was airlifted to Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, on day 5 after disease onset. The patient received an experimental antiviral treatment of monoclonal antibodies (ZMAb) and favipiravir. We monitored daily viral load kinetics, estimated viral clearance, calculated the half-life of the virus in plasma, and analysed the viral genome via high-throughput sequencing, in addition to clinical and biological signs. FINDINGS: The patient recovered rapidly, despite an initial high viral load (about 1 × 10(7) RNA copies per mL 24 h after onset of fever). We noted a two-phase viral decay. The virus half-life decreased from about 26 h to 9·5 h after the experimental antiviral treatment. Compared with a consensus sequence of June 18, 2014, the isolate that infected this patient displayed only five synonymous nucleotide substitutions on the full genome (4901A→C, 7837C→T, 8712A→G, 9947T→C, 16201T→C) despite 5 months of human-to-human transmission. INTERPRETATION: This study emphasises the importance of virological investigations to fully understand the course of Ebola virus disease and adaptation of the virus. Whether the viral decay was caused by the effects of the immune response alone, an additional benefit from the antiviral treatment, or a combination of both is unclear. In-depth virological analysis and randomised controlled trials are needed before any conclusion on the potential effect of antiviral treatment can be drawn. FUNDING: Geneva University Hospitals, Swiss Office of Public Health, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Swiss National Science Foundation.

Stress (Takotsubo) cardiomyopathy--a novel pathophysiological hypothesis to explain catecholamine-induced acute myocardial stunning.

Stress cardiomyopathy, also referred to as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is an increasingly recognized clinical syndrome characterized by acute reversible apical ventricular dysfunction. We hypothesize that stress cardiomyopathy is a form of myocardial stunning, but with different cellular mechanisms to those seen during transient episodes of ischemia secondary to coronary stenoses. In this syndrome, we believe that high levels of circulating epinephrine trigger a switch in intracellular signal trafficking in ventricular cardiomyocytes, from G(s) protein to G(i) protein signaling via the beta(2)-adrenoceptor. Although this switch to beta(2)-adrenoceptor-G(i) protein signaling protects against the proapoptotic effects of intense activation of beta(1)-adrenoceptors, it is also negatively inotropic. This effect is greatest at the apical myocardium, in which the beta-adrenoceptor density is greatest. Our hypothesis has implications for the use of drugs or devices in the treatment of patients with stress cardiomyopathy.