Viral pneumonia: from COVID-19 to beyond

Viral pneumonia’s such as COVID-19 are associated with unpredictable disease course ranging from subclinical towards extreme severity associated with high mortality. In this project the VICOBE consortium of UMC Utrecht, Radboud University and Flowview Diagnostics aims at improving the diagnosis, but particularly the prognosis of disease development focusing on a prediction model for those patients that end up in the ICU. By developing a-point-of-care (SEH) 24/7 fully automated flow analysis for determination of immune profiling of the innate immune system for monitoring and predicting deterioration of disease on the ward and/or ICU.

The anticipated social and economic impact of viral pneumonia is huge as illustrated by the high mortality and infectivity. During the COVID-19 pandemic it has become crystal clear that the understanding of the underlying clinical mechanisms causing the viral diseases are basically lacking creating a very vulnerable situation for society.

During the viral outbreak in the Netherlands all (suspected) COVID-19 patients in UMCU have been sampled: 344 unique patients, 700 samples and 1400 analyses. These raw data need to be translated into intuitive visualisations and evaluated for their predictive power. The project will also prospectively sample during the coming influenza season and possibly during a putative second wave of COVID-19.

This project will provide critical insight into the systemic inflammatory response underlying at least in part deterioration of disease and will provide the first points of engagement to treat collateral damage evoked by the hyperactive immune response. And a user-interface prototyping will be build for an intuitive interpretation of FCM analysis provided by the algorithm. So this can be used in the clinic.