A Prospective Cohort Analysis of COVID-19 Positive and Negative Patients Admitted to a Single Centre in the North-East of England During the Peak of a Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the clinical haematological, radiological and biochemical factors associated with outcome in COVID-19 positive patients in North East England (NEE) where mortality rates were higher during the peak of the pandemic.Design: Prospective single-centre cohort study.Setting: Acute Medical Admissions service at Darlington Memorial Hospital in North East England.Participants: 275 patients were admitted with either fever and/or respiratory symptoms of cough, chest pain or shortness of breath over a three-week period from 26th March 2020 to 12th April 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.Main Outcome Measures: Patient outcome (mortality) and admission to the intensive care unit or high dependency unit.Results: Mortality rates for COVID-19 positive patients treated at the DMH in NEE was higher than the UK-wide data, 30.8% vs 26% respectively. Similar to other studies, COVID-19 positive patients had a median age of 70 years, a higher proportion of males and a high level of comorbidities (such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension), but they were mot associated with outcome. Comparison with the UK wide data highlighted a much higher number of obese patients with a BMI >30 (DMH 60.8% vs UK 10.5%, p2 ≤93%) and an immunocompromised status. Conclusions: We report a regional study from a hospital in NEE which has been designated by the UK government to have a higher than average number of cases and a substantially worse outcome. This study shows higher mortality than the UK national statistics and the independent risk factors identified in our study differed from national and international data. This analysis of COVID-19 positive patients demonstrates the importance of understanding the variability of risk profiling in different regions of the UK and will contribute to better management of local lockdowns and similar pandemics in the future.Funding Statement: No specific funding received.Declaration of Interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.Ethics Approval Statement: Data was collected as part of the DARlington CoVid Epidemiology (DarCoVE) Audit (registration number 889, Clinical Audit Department, County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, exempt from ethical approval for analysis of anonymised healthcare data and clinical service evaluation).