Comorbidities And Complications Associated With Covid-19 Infection

Comorbidities And Complications Associated With Covid-19 Infection

To evaluate the spectrum of comorbidities and complications and its impact on the clinical outcome in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a coronavirus with human infection designated as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. Bats and birds serve as the typical coronavirus hosts, with zoonotic spread and a long-documented history of animal-animal-human transmission.

Since November 2019, the rapid outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which arose from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, has recently become a public health emergency of international concern. COVID-19 has contributed to an enormous adverse impact globally.

As of 10 March 2020 there have been 113702 laboratory confirmed cases and 4012 deaths globally.

According to the latest reports, the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are heterogeneous. On admission, 20-51% of patients were reported as having at least one comorbidity, with diabetes (10-20%), hypertension (10-15%) and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (7-40%) being most common. Previous studies have demonstrated that the presence of any comorbidity has been associated with a 3.4-fold increased risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with H7N9 infection. As with influenza, SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), COVID-19 is more readily predisposed to respiratory failure and death in susceptible patients.

Although it is well documented that COVID-19 is primarily manifested as a respiratory tract infection, emerging data indicate that it should be regarded as a systemic disease involving multiple systems, including cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, hematopoietic and immune system. Mortality rates of COVID-19 are lower than SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS); however, COVID-19 is more lethal than seasonal flu.

Older people and those with comorbidities are at increased risk of death from COVID-19, but younger people without major underlying diseases may also present with potentially lethal complications such as fulminant myocarditis and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC).

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients presented by respiratory symptom and admitted to Assuit university hospitals in wards and intensive care units due to COVID-19 according to WHO and Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MOH) definitions with positive PCR result.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Negative PCR result for suspicious cases of Covid-19,
• Patients refusing to participate in the study.