Clinical characteristics and factors associated with mortality in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in ICU

Abstract

Introduction: at the end of 2019, SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of a new global pandemic. The clinical course may vary depending on the geographical region. The factors associated with mortality in our setting must continue to be documented.

Objective: to describe the clinical and biological characteristics of a cohort of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in an intensive care unit (ICU), and the factors associated with their mortality.

Materials and methods: patients with a positive RT-PCR. The variables were recorded on admission to the ICU. The comparisons were made using the Mann-Whitney U, Chi² or Fisher’s exact test. Logistic regression was used for the multivariate model.

Results: 148 patients were collected from March to December 2020, 102 (69.8%) of whom were males. The median age was 62 years; 137 (92.5%) of the patients met the criteria for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), 132 patients (89.2%) received mechanical ventilation, and 103 (69.6%) of the patients died. The factors associated with mortality on the bivariate analysis were hypertension (HTN), obesity, age, ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), C-reactive protein (CRP) and the PaO2/Fio2 (P/F) ratio. The multivariate analysis showed that hypertensive patients had a higher risk of dying (odds ratio [OR] 3.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29 – 4.96).

Conclusion: COVID-19 mortality in the ICU is high, and the risk factors found were similar to those reported in the literature. Understanding the differential behavior according to risk factors helps determine early intervention measures.