Identification of clinical features associated with mortality in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Summary Background To prevent infectious diseases, it is necessary to understand how they are spread and their clinical features. Early identification of risk factors and clinical features is needed to identify critically ill patients, provide suitable treatments, and prevent mortality. Methods We conducted a prospective study on COVID-19 patients referred to a tertiary hospital in Iran between March and November 2020. Of the 3008 patients (mean age 59.3±18.7 years, range 1 to 100 years), 1324 were women. We investigated COVID-19 related mortality and its association with clinical features including headache, chest pain, symptoms on CT, hospitalization, time to infection, history of neurological disorders, having a single or multiple risk factors, fever, myalgia, dizziness, seizure, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and anorexia. Findings There was a significant association between COVID-19 mortality and old age, headache, chest pain, respiratory distress, low respiratory rate, oxygen saturation less than 93%, need for a mechanical ventilator, having symptoms on CT, hospitalization, time to infection, history of hypertension, neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases and having a risk factor or multiple risk factors. In contrast, there was no significant association between mortality and gender, fever, myalgia, dizziness, seizure, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and anorexia. Interpretation Our results might help identify early symptoms related to COVID-19 and better manage patients clinically.