Impact of a phone call with a medical student/general practitioner team on morbidity of chronic patients during the first French COVID-19 lockdown (COVIQuest): a cluster randomised trial.

OBJECTIVES: The first COVID-19 lockdown led to a significantly reduced access to healthcare, which may have increased decompensations in frail patients with chronic diseases, especially older patients living with a chronic cardiovascular disease (CVD) or a mental health disorder (MHD). The objective of COVIQuest was to evaluate whether a general practitioner (GP)-initiated phone call to patients with CVD and MHD during the COVID-19 lockdown could reduce the number of hospitalisation(s) over a 1-month period. DESIGN: This is a cluster randomised controlled trial. Clusters were GPs from eight French regions. PARTICIPANTS: Patients ≥70 years old with chronic CVD (COVIQuest_CV subtrial) or ≥18 years old with MHD (COVIQuest_MH subtrial). INTERVENTIONS: A standardised GP-initiated phone call aiming to evaluate patients' need for urgent healthcare, with a control group benefiting from usual care (ie, the contact with the GP was by the patient's initiative). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital admission within 1 month after the phone call. RESULTS: In the COVIQuest_CV subtrial, 131 GPs and 1834 patients were included in the intervention group and 136 GPs and 1510 patients were allocated to the control group. Overall, 65 (3.54%) patients were hospitalised in the intervention group vs 69 (4.57%) in the control group (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.20; risk difference -0.77, 95% CI -2.28 to 0.74). In the COVIQuest_MH subtrial, 136 GPs and 832 patients were included in the intervention group and 131 GPs and 548 patients were allocated to the control group. Overall, 27 (3.25%) patients were hospitalised in the intervention group vs 12 (2.19%) in the control group (OR 1.52, 95% CI 0.82 to 2.81; risk difference 1.38, 95% CI 0.06 to 2.70). CONCLUSION: A GP-initiated phone call may have been associated with more hospitalisations within 1 month for patients with MHD, but results lack robustness and significance depending on the statistical approach used. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04359875.

Levetiracetam optimal dose-finding as first-line treatment for neonatal seizures occurring in the context of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (LEVNEONAT-1): study protocol of a phase II trial.

INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic schedules for treating neonatal seizures remain elusive. First-line treatment with phenobarbital is widely supported but without strong scientific evidence. Levetiracetam (LEV) is an emerging and promising antiepileptic drug (AED). The aim of this phase II trial is to determine the benefits of LEV by applying a strict methodology and to estimate the optimal dose of LEV as a first-line AED to treat seizures in newborns suffering from hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: LEVNEONAT-1 is an open and sequential LEV dose-finding study. The optimal dose is that which is estimated to be associated with a toxicity not exceeding 10% and an efficacy higher than 60%. Efficacy is defined by a seizure burden reduction of 80% after the loading dose. Four increasing dose regimens will be assessed including one loading dose of 30, 40, 50 or 60 mg/kg followed by eight maintenance doses (ie, a quarter of the loading dose) injected every 8 hours. A two-patient cohort will be necessary at each dose level to consider an upper dose level assignment. The maximal sample size expected is 50 participants with a minimum of 24 patients or fewer in the case of a high rate of toxicity. Patients will be recruited in five neonatal intensive care units beginning in October 2017 and continuing for 2 years. In parallel, the LEV pharmacokinetics will be measured five times (ie, 30 min; 4 and 7 hours after the loading dose; 1-3 hours and 12-18 hours after the last maintenance dose). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been obtained from the regional ethical committee (2016-R25) and the French Drug Safety Agency (160652A-31). The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The results will also be presented at medical meetings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02229123; Pre-results.