Targeted rapid testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the emergency department is associated with large reductions in uninfected patient exposure time.

Opportunity exists to decrease healthcare-related exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), preserve infection control resources, and increase care capacity by reducing the time to diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A retrospective cohort analysis was undertaken to measure the effect of targeted rapid molecular testing for SARS-CoV-2 on these outcomes. In comparison with standard platform testing, rapid testing was associated with a 65.6% reduction (12.6 h) in the median time to removal from the isolation cohort for patients with negative diagnostic results. This translated to an increase in COVID-19 treatment capacity of 3028 bed-hours and 7500 fewer patient interactions that required the use of personal protective equipment per week.

SU-D-211-03: An Automated Inverse Planning Optimization Approach for Single- Fraction and Fractionated Radiosurgery Using Gamma Knife Perfexion.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this work is to develop an automated inverse planning approach to generate singe-fraction and fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment plans for Gamma Knife Perfexion. METHODS: Our automated approach consists of two steps: 1) a grassfire-based algorithm to carefully determine the isocentre locations; 2) a penalty-based optimization to find the optimal shot shapes and their intensities to minimize the deviation of the delivered dose from the objective dose in all structures. For single-fraction SRS, a margin-less approach was taken: conformity of dose to the gross tumor volume (GTV) with a steep dose fall-off was prioritized. For fractionated radiosurgery, dose homogeneity was given a higher priority since planning target volumes (PTV) were applied to account for daily setup variation, and these PTVs could overlap with organs-at-risk (OARs). The two-step approach was tested on seven clinical cases with PTV sizes of 0.5cm̂3-56.5cm̂3. In the tested cases, the PTV had 0%-38% overlap with OARs. RESULTS: For single-fraction SRS, the dose to 1mm̂3 brainstem was on average 0.24Gy (range: -2.4Gy to +2.0Gy) lower compared to manually-generated plans. Beam-on time varied with the number of isocentres, but on average was 33min longer than manually- generated plans. The optimization algorithm took 215min on average, while isocentre selection performed in <10s.For fractionated SRS, the average PTV coverage was V95=94.9% (range: 92.7%-97.6%) and the mean dose to 1 mm̂3 brainstem was 87.8% of the prescription dose (range: 35.4%- 108.8%). The mean beam-on time per fraction per dose-per-fraction was 4.8min/Gy (range: 0.9min/Gy-10.3min/Gy). We observed a tradeoff between conformity and OARs-sparing in both plans, and added sensitivity to isocentre locations in fractionated plans. In all the cases, GTV received the full prescription dose. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that automated inverse planning yields improved conformity and OAR-sparing for single- fraction SRS and is capable of generating homogeneous fractionated SRS. This work is partially funded by Elekta Instrument, AB, Stockholm, Sweden.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrotizing factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) after on- and off- pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

INTRODUCTION: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is one of the most frequently performed operations around the world. The aim of this study is to evaluate high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) differences between on-pump and off-pump coronary surgery. METHODS: In this prospective study, 90 patients with coronary artery disease referred for CABG were enrolled from July 2006-November 2007. Levels of hs-CRP and TNF-alpha were measured by ELISA using commercial kits RESULTS: hs-CRP levels significantly (p<0.001) increase after CABG. But no difference between off-pump and on-pump groups was noted for hs-CRP and TNF-alpha levels (p=0.4, p=0.8). CONCLUSIONS: There was no difference in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and TNF-alpha between on-pump and off-pump CABG surgery.