Clinical characteristics and outcomes in adult patients with COVID-19 infection admitted to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that was responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic. Our hospital was one of the largest hospitals in the UAE to admit and manage patients with this novel infection since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. The main objective of this paper was to review clinical characteristics and outcomes in adult patients with COID-19 infection admitted to our hospital.Methods: A single center retrospective observational study of 684 adult patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Dubai in 2020 from 28/1/2020 until 13/05/2020. A select of clinical, radiological, epidemiological and Laboratory data was analyzed in relation to clinical presentation and disease outcome including ICU admission and overall mortality. Only patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection based on positive nasopharyngeal/throat swabs for SARS-CoV-2 virus on Real Time PCR (RT-PCR) were included in final analysis. Results: Of the total 684 adult patients, 90.9% were males (n=622) with a mean age of 44.43 years (range of 66 years, from 15 to 81 years). Significant number of patients had co-morbidities as 177 (25.9%) patients had diabetes, 121 (17.7%) had hypertension, 28 (4.1%) had heart disease and 7 (1.0%) had renal disease. The most common presenting symptoms were fever (87.4%) cough (73.5%), shortness of breath (35.1 %), URTI (18.6%), and Diarrhea (8%). The clinical conditions among these 99 patients included upper respiratory tract infection (47.5%), abnormal chest X-ray, lymphopenia, high inflammatory markers a fifth (21%) of patients had moderate pneumonia, while 7% had severe pneumonia with 22.2% requiring admission to the intensive care unit and 12.1% died. Late presentation with severe disease, an abnormal chest X-ray, lymphopenia, high inflammatory markers (C- reactive protein, ferritin and procalcitonin), and end organ damage (high creatinine or high aspartate aminotransferase) were predictors for admission to critical care unit or died.Conclusion: Older patients (age > 50 years), those with High BMI (>27), high LDH, hypertension, diabetes, SOB, High urea, presence of pneumonia, were associated significantly with a higher risk of ICU admission and higher mortality rates.