Clinical Outcomes With Furosemide Versus Torsemide in Patients With Heart Failure: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Despite potential advantages of torsemide over furosemide, <10% of the patients with heart failure (HF) are on torsemide in clinical practice. Prior studies comparing furosemide to torsemide in patients with HF have shown conflicting findings, regarding hospitalizations and mortality. We aimed to pool all the studies conducted to date and provide the most updated and comprehensive evidence, regarding the effect of furosemide vs torsemide in reducing mortality and hospitalizations in patients with HF. We conducted a comprehensive literature search of the PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library and Scopus from inception till June 2023, for randomized and nonrandomized studies comparing furosemide to torsemide in adult patients (>18 years) with acute or chronic HF. Data about all-cause mortality, HF-related hospitalizations and all-cause hospitalizations was extracted, pooled, and analyzed. Forest plots were created based on the random effects model. A total of 17 studies (n = 11,996 patients) were included in our analysis with a median follow-up time of 8 months. Our pooled analysis demonstrated no difference in all-cause mortality between furosemide and torsemide groups in HF patients (OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.75-1.29, P = 0.89). However, torsemide was associated with a significantly lesser incidence of HF-related hospitalizations (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.54-0.99, P = 0.04), and all-cause hospitalizations (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.73-0.98, P = 0.03), as compared to furosemide. Torsemide significantly reduces HF-related and all-cause hospitalizations as compared to furosemide, with no difference in mortality. We recommend transitioning from furosemide to torsemide in HF patients who are not attaining symptomatic control.

Comparing clinical presentation, viremia, and immunological factors at various severity presentations in hospitalized children affected by COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

Background and Aims: Although SARS-CoV-2 infection usually leads to mild COVID-19 in children, sometimes it causes serious complications, especially in those with underlying diseases. Several factors have been identified in determining disease severity in adults, and limited studies have been conducted in children. The prognostic implications of SARS-CoV-2 RNaemia as an important factor in determining disease severity in children are not well understood. Methods: In this study, we aimed to prospectively assess the relationship between disease severity and immunological factors and viremia in 47 COVID-19 hospitalized children. In this research, 76.5% of children experienced mild and moderate COVID-19, while 23.5% experienced severe and critical forms of the disease. Results: The presence of underlying diseases in different groups of pediatric patients differed significantly from each other. On the other hand, clinical symptoms such as vomiting and chest pain as well as laboratory parameters including erythrocyte sedimentation rate were significantly different in different groups of patients. Viremia was seen in only two children, and this had no significant relationship with the severity of COVID-19. Conclusion: In conclusion, our data confirmed that COVID-19 severity differed in SARS-CoV-2 infected children. Some clinical presentation and lab data parameters were different in various presentation of patients. Viremia was not associated with severity in our study.