Assessing risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients presenting with symptoms in Shanghai, China: a multicentre, observational cohort study.

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to international concern. We aimed to establish an effective screening strategy in Shanghai, China, to aid early identification of patients with COVID-19. Methods: We did a multicentre, observational cohort study in fever clinics of 25 hospitals in 16 districts of Shanghai. All patients visiting the clinics within the study period were included. A strategy for COVID-19 screening was presented and then suspected cases were monitored and analysed until they were confirmed as cases or excluded. Logistic regression was used to determine the risk factors of COVID-19. Findings: We enrolled patients visiting fever clinics from Jan 17 to Feb 16, 2020. Among 53 617 patients visiting fever clinics, 1004 (1·9%) were considered as suspected cases, with 188 (0·4% of all patients, 18·7% of suspected cases) eventually diagnosed as confirmed cases. 154 patients with missing data were excluded from the analysis. Exposure history (odds ratio [OR] 4·16, 95% CI 2·74-6·33; p<0·0001), fatigue (OR 1·56, 1·01-2·41; p=0·043), white blood cell count less than 4 × 109 per L (OR 2·44, 1·28-4·64; p=0·0066), lymphocyte count less than 0·8 × 109 per L (OR 1·82, 1·00-3·31; p=0·049), ground glass opacity (OR 1·95, 1·32-2·89; p=0·0009), and having both lungs affected (OR 1·54, 1·04-2·28; p=0·032) were independent risk factors for confirmed COVID-19. Interpretation: The screening strategy was effective for confirming or excluding COVID-19 during the spread of this contagious disease. Relevant independent risk factors identified in this study might be helpful for early recognition of the disease. Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Quantitative assessment of the influence of common variations (rs8034191 and rs1051730) at 15q25 and lung cancer risk.

Several genome-wide association studies on lung cancer (LC) have reported similar findings of a new susceptibility locus, 15q25. After that, a number of studies reported that rs8034191 and rs1051730 polymorphisms at chromosome 15q25 have been implicated in LC risk. However, studies have yielded contradictory results. To derive a more precise estimation of the relationship, a meta-analysis of 43,742 LC cases and 58,967 controls from 17 published case-control studies was performed. Overall, significantly elevated LC risk was associated with rs8034191-C (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.22-1.31, P < 10(-5)) and rs105173-A variant (OR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.20-1.36, P < 10(-5)) when all studies were pooled into the meta-analysis. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, significantly increased risks were found for rs8034191 and rs105173 polymorphisms among Caucasians and African American, while no significant associations were observed for the two polymorphisms in East Asians. In addition, we found that rs8034191 and rs105173 confer risk, for both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma when stratified by histological types of LC. Furthermore, our results on stratified analysis according to smoking status showed an increased LC risk in ever-smokers, while no associations were detected among never-smokers for the two polymorphisms. In conclusion, this meta-analysis demonstrated that the two common variations (rs8034191 and rs1051730) at 15q25 are a risk factor associated with increased LC susceptibility, but these associations vary in different ethnic populations.