Abstract 14483: Correlating Blood Type, Infection Risk, and Illness Severity in Patients With COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: There have been over 13 million cases of COVID-19 cases with a 2% mortality rate [1]. Over the past year there has been a significant progress in the understanding and management of COVID-19 infections. There are still many factors and complications of COVID-19 that have yet to be elucidated. There have been multiple studies looking at the possible link between ABO group type and increased risk of mortality. Many studies from China, Europe and Canada indicate that blood group “O” had lower risk of susceptibility and severe infection[2-4]. We wanted to identify weather this trend was applicable within our hospital network in Eastern Pennsylvania. We wanted to identify through retrospective analysis if there is an association between ABO type, Race, Gender, and mortality at 30-day or 90 days. Methods: We identified n=568 patients between February 2020 to June 2020 that were admitted to the hospital for treatment of COVID-19 that also had historical data regarding ABO grouping. Demographics, length of stay, intubations, and smoking history. Once data was collected, statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS for means, standard deviations, and Chi-squared test for non-parametric testing. Results: The breakdown of blood groups in our populations was [ A: 35.1%, B: 11.6%, AB: 7.9%, O:45.3% ]. The average age of patients by blood group was [A:70.9±6 , B: 68.6±15, AB:66.3±12, O: 65±17], The percentage of females in each group is [A:45%, B: 35%, AB:67%, O:50%]. The mean BMI for all groups were 31±7 (p>0.05) and there was no significant difference between blood groups with length of stay [A:8±6.1 , B: 10.5±9.6, AB:8.3±6.7, O: 9±8 (p>0.05)] There was no significant difference in mortality rate among the blood groups during admission [ A: 26%, B: 16%, AB: 13%, O:24% (p=0.17)] or the rate of intubation [ A: 10%, B: 15%, AB: 11%, O:12% (p=0.72)]. Conclusion: Our findings indicate there is no significant difference between mortality, inpatient length of stay, or proportion of intubations between different blood groups. Our population of blood groups was distributed close to distribution of blood group in the general population. While there have been studies that indicate there is a protective nature of type O blood group, we did not see this in our cohort.