Analyzing Trends in Demographic, Laboratory, Imaging, and Clinical Outcomes of ICU-Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients.

Background: COVID-19 has led to significant hospitalization and intensive care unit admission rates. The demographic parameters of COVID-19 patients, such as age, underlying illnesses, and clinical symptoms, substantially influence the incidence and mortality of these individuals. The current study examined the clinical and demographic characteristics of COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) patients in Yazd, Iran.

Methods: The descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on ICU patients with a positive RT-PCR test for coronavirus, admitted to the ICU in Yazd province, Iran, over 18 months. To this end, demographic, clinical, laboratory, and imaging data were collected. Moreover, patients were divided into good and worse clinical outcome groups based on their clinical outcomes. Subsequently, data analysis was performed at a 95% confidence interval (CI) using SPSS 26 software.

Results: 391 patients with positive PCR were analyzed. The average age of the patients in the study was 63.59 ± 17.76, where 57.3% were male. On the high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan, the mean lung involvement score was 14.03 ± 6.04, where alveolar consolidation (34%) and ground-glass opacity (25.6%) were the most prevalent type of lung involvement. The most common underlying illnesses in the study participants were hypertension (HTN) (41.4%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (39.9%), ischemic heart disease (IHD) (21%), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) (20.7%). In hospitalized patients, the rates of endotracheal intubation and mortality were 38.9% and 38.1%, respectively. Age, DM, HTN, dyslipidemia, CKD, cerebral vascular accident (CVA), cerebral hemorrhage, and cancer were reported to be significantly different between these two groups of patients, indicating an increase in the rate of intubation and mortality among these patients. Furthermore, the multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that DM, HTN, CKD, CVA, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the percentage of lung involvement, and initial O₂ saturation significantly increase the mortality of ICU patients.

Conclusion: Several features of COVID-19 patients influence the mortality in these individuals. According to the findings, early detection of this disease in people at high risk of death can prevent its progression and lower mortality rates.