Characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients in Georgia

  1. Tengiz Tsertsvadze
  2. Marina Ezugbaia
  3. Marina Endeladze
  4. Levani Ratiani
  5. Neli Javakhishvili
  6. Lika Mumladze
  7. Manana Khotchava
  8. Maiko Janashia
  9. Diana Zviadadze
  10. Levan Gopodze
  11. Alex Gokhelashvili
  12. Revaz Metchurchtlishvili
  13. Akaki Abutidze
  14. Nikoloz Chkhartishvili

Reviewed by

Read the full article

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Objective

Describe presenting characteristics of hospitalized patients and explore factors associated with in-hospital mortality during the first wave of pandemic in Georgia.

Methods

This retrospective study included 582 adult patients admitted to 9 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals as of July 30, 2020 (72% of all hospitalizations). Data were abstracted from medical charts. Factors associated with mortality were evaluated in multivariable Poisson regression analysis.

Results

Among 582 adults included in this analysis 14.9% were 65+ years old, 49.1% were women, 59.3% had uni- or bi-lateral lung involvement on chest computed tomography, 27.1% had any co-morbidity, 13.2% patients had lymphopenia, 4.1% had neutophilosis, 4.8% had low platelet count, 37.6% had d-dimer levels of >0.5 mcg/l. Overall mortality was 2.1% (12/582). After excluding mild infections, mortality among patients with moderate-to-critical disease was 3.0% (12/399), while among patients with severe-to-critical disease mortality was 12.7% (8/63). Baseline characteristics associated with increased risk of mortality in multivariate regression analysis included: age ≥65 years (RR: 10.38, 95% CI: 1.30-82.75), presence of any chronic co-morbidity (RR: 20.71, 95% CI: 1.58-270.99), lymphopenia (RR: 4.76, 95% CI: 1.52-14.93), neutrophilosis (RR: 7.22, 95% CI: 1.27-41.12), low platelet count (RR: 6.92, 95% CI: 1.18-40.54), elevated d-dimer (RR: 4.45, 95% CI: 1.48-13.35), elevated AST (RR: 6.33, 95% CI: 1.18-33.98).

Conclusion

In-hospital mortality during the first wave of pandemic in Georgia was low. We identified several risk factors (older age, co-morbidities and laboratory abnormalities) associated with poor outcome that should provide guidance for planning health sector response as pandemic continues to evolve.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.23.20218255: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitations include small sample size and small number of events that affected statistical power. Analysis was limited to laboratory parameters included in basic package of care, while other biomarkers known to be associated with outcome such as albumin, IL-6, ferritin (15), were available only for small subset of patients. In summary, in-hospital mortality during the first wave of pandemic in Georgia was low. Our study characterized risk factors (older age, co-morbidities and laboratory abnormalities) associated with poor outcome that should provide guidance for planning health sector response as pandemic continues to evolve.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.23.20218255 on medRxiv