Clinical Parameters and Mortality in COVID-19 Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Qazvin City

The initial reports of an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia suggest that COVID-19 is a severe disease.

We aimed to investigate the clinical parameters and mortality of patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Velayat Hospital in Qazvin, Iran.

In this single-centered, cross-sectional, and retrospective study, we enrolled all adult patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Velayat Hospital from March 20 to April 30, 2020. Sociodemographic data, laboratory values, and disease outcomes of the patients were collected. Then, the obtained data were compared between survivors and non-survivors.

Of 1100 patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, 74 adult patients were included in this study. The Mean±SD age of the 52 patients was 60.1±16.46 years. All patients had underlying diseases. The Mean±SD time from admission to discharge from the ICU was 12.39±6.48 days. The logistic regression test indicated that the amount of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) during hospitalization in the ICU was associated with increased mortality risk (OR=1.081, 95% CI=1.024-1.141; P=0.005). Moreover, the same test showed that platelet count (OR: 0.991, 95% CI: 0.985-0.997; P=0.002) and hemoglobin concentration (OR: 0.691, 95% CI: 0.502-0.951; P=0.023) were associated with a decreased mortality risk in ICU patients; this means that patients with higher hemoglobin concentration and platelet counts had a lower mortality risk in ICU.

The mortality rate of patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia is high. The BUN level was a predictor of mortality in patients with COVID-19. Therefore, it is recommended that BUN be measured during initial referral, and based on that, timely and appropriate corrective actions be conducted.