Clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters associated with the risk of severe COVID-19 in patients from two hospitals in Northeast Brazil

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Sara Larissa de Melo Araújo, Thiala Alves Feitosa, Vanessa Cardoso Pereira, Clara Caldeira de Andrade, Ana Tércia Paulo Silva, Lorena Viana de Andrade, Kamila Erika Ribeiro Lopes, Mirela Vanessa de Souza Sá, Carlos Dornels Freire de Souza, Anderson da Costa Armstrong, Rodrigo Feliciano do Carmo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2022
• Subjects: Coronavirus; Predictors; Risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; Severity; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0119-2022; https://doaj.org/article/d3e254488a2b4b12a57a23178a56b4b4

ABSTRACT Background: Although most coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections are mild, some patients have severe clinical conditions requiring hospitalization. Data on the severity of COVID-19 in Brazil are scarce and are limited to public databases. This study aimed to investigate the clinical and laboratory factors associated with the severity of COVID-19 in a cohort of hospitalized adults from two hospitals in Northeast Brazil. Methods: Patients over 18 years of age who were hospitalized between August 2020 and July 2021 with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were included. The patients were classified into two groups: moderate and severe. Clinical, laboratory and imaging parameters were collected and compared between the groups. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine the predictors of COVID-19 severity. Results: This study included 495 patients (253 moderate and 242 severe). A total of 372 patients (75.2%) were between 18 and 65 years of age, and the majority were male (60.6%; n = 300). Patients with severe disease had higher levels of leukocytes, neutrophils, platelets, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio, blood glucose, C-reactive protein, ferritin, D-dimer, aspartate aminotransferase, creatinine, and urea (p < 0.05). In multivariate logistic regression, the following variables were significant predictors of COVID-19 severity: leukocytes (odds ratio [OR] 3.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.12-5.06), international normalized ratio (INR) (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14-0.33), and urea (OR 4.03; 95% CI 2.21-7.35). Conclusions: The present study identified the clinical and laboratory factors associated with the severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized Brazilian individuals.