Subclinical ocular inflammation in persons recovered from ambulatory COVID-19

  1. Mathieu F. Bakhoum
  2. Michele Ritter
  3. Anupam K. Garg
  4. Alison X Chan
  5. Christine Y. Bakhoum
  6. Davey M. Smith

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by striking variability in clinical severity, and a hyperinflammatory response in the lung is associated with high mortality. Little is known about the extent and duration of inflammation in persons recovering from COVID-19. Here, we used spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to detect the presence of inflammatory cells in the vitreous cavity, an immune-privileged microenvironment, in persons recovered from COVID-19. Our results provide quasi-histologic evidence that neuroinflammation is present in persons who recovered from COVID-19, only one of whom required hospitalization. Our results also suggest that persons who feel that their recovery is incomplete have evidence of subclinical eye inflammation, which may be a marker of residual inflammation elsewhere as well.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.22.20128140: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has limitations. The identification of inflammatory cells relied on SD-OCT imaging, and there were no molecular or cellular analysis of vitreous biopsies. The specificity of this finding to COVID-19 is unknown, as no similar study to our knowledge has been conducted in persons recovering from other respiratory viral or systemic illnesses. A larger study is needed to determine the true prevalence of vitreous cells in persons recovering from COVID-19, and a longitudinal study is needed to determine its long-term ocular health sequelae.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.22.20128140v1 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.22.20128140v2 on medRxiv