Analysis of clinical risk factors in COVID-19 mortality in ICU in various age groups: a retrospective observational study

Abstract

Background and Objective: COVID-19 has been associated with more than 770 million cases and 6.9 million deaths worldwide, since the first case was reported in 2019 in Wuhan, China. Various demographic and clinical factors have been associated with high mortality. We retrospectively analyzed data of patients admitted to our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with moderate to severe disease for association of mortality with baseline clinical parameters and lab values.

Methodology: Retrospectively, data was collected for patients admitted to ICU of our hospital from March 2021 to August 2021, with moderate to severe covid infection. A total of 399 patients were included in the analysis after exclusion of patients with incomplete outcome data. Analysis was initially performed to find association of baseline parameters with ICU mortality; stratified analysis was further performed for association with various age groups.

Results: There was significant association of increased mortality with higher baseline heart rate (> 100 bpm), respiratory rate (> 30 bpm), low PaO₂/FiO₂ (< 100), Low oxygen saturation (< 80%), high neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (> 10) and high baseline proBNP (> 500); however, subgroup analysis in the study showed that increased respiratory rate and increased neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio were not associated with increased mortality in patients with ages less than 50 y.

Conclusion: Baseline higher baseline heart rate, respiratory rate, low PaO₂/FiO₂, Low oxygen saturation, high neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and high baseline proBNP were found to be associated with higher mortality in COVID patients. However, higher respiratory rate and higher neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio were not associated with increased mortality in patients with age less than 50 y.

Keywords: COVID-19, Heart rate, Respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, proBNP

Citation: Chandra M, Sharma V, Kohli S, Yadav A, Sandill S, Sachdeva HC. Analysis of clinical risk factors in COVID-19 mortality in ICU in various age groups: A retrospective observational study. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2024;28(2):278−284; DOI: 10.35975/apic.v28i2.2323

Received: October 16, 2024; Reviewed: January 18, 2024; Accepted: February 20, 2024