The role of concomitant cardiovascular diseases and cardiac biomarkers for predicting mortality in critical COVID-19 patients

Background to identify the potential cardiovascular risk factors associated with mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Methods All consecutive patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of our institute for COVID-19 from 1 April 2020 to 20 May 2020 were included. Patient characteristics including complete medical history and comorbid diseases, admission and 7th day blood test results and clinical characteristics were compared between survivors and non-survivors. Results There were no significant difference between survivors and non-survivors regarding age, gender, and pre-existing coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary stenting. Admission D-dimer and NT-proBNP levels of non-survivors were significantly higher than survivors. CRP, procalcitonin, creatine kinase (CK) and troponin I levels on 7th day of admission were significantly higher in non-survivors compared to survivors. In addition, both admission and 7th day lymphocyte count were lower in non-survivors compared to that of the survivors. CRP declined from admission to 7th day of hospitalisation in survivors, whereas a median 6.75 mg/L increase was observed in non survivors. The peak and minimum CRP, procalcitonin and levels were significantly higher in non-survivors than survivors. The peak NT-proBNP level of non-survivors was also significantly higher than that of the survivors. Intubation, lower GFR values and higher NT-proBNP values were predictive for death. Conclusion The prothrombotic coagulopathy mediated by the endothelial interaction with SARS-CoV-2 may also have role in unfavourable prognosis in COVID-19. These readily available biomarkers might be useful in risk stratification of COVID-19 cases.

Automated summary

In this study, potential cardiovascular risk factors associated with mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients were identified. Higher D-dimer, NT-proBNP, inflammatory markers, and cardiac markers, as well as lower lymphocyte count, were associated with non-survivors. These biomarkers may be useful in risk stratification of COVID-19 cases.