Abstract
BackgroundBelgium was among the first countries in Europe with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. Since the first diagnosis on February 3rd, the epidemic has quickly evolved, with Belgium at the crossroads of Europe, being one of the hardest hit countries. Although risk factors for severe disease in COVID-19 patients have been described in Chinese and United States (US) cohorts, good quality studies reporting on clinical characteristics, risk factors and outcome of European COVID-19 patients are still scarce.MethodsThis study describes the clinical characteristics, complications and outcomes of 319 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, admitted to a tertiary care center at the start of the pandemic in Belgium, and aims to identify the main risk factors for in-hospital mortality in a European context using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis.ResultsMost patients were male (60%), the median age was 74 (IQR 61–83) and 20% of patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, of whom 63% needed invasive mechanical ventilation. The overall case fatality rate was 25%. The best predictors of in-hospital mortality in multivariate analysis were older age, and renal insufficiency, higher lactate dehydrogenase and thrombocytopenia. Patients admitted early in the epidemic had a higher mortality compared to patients admitted later in the epidemic. In univariate analysis, patients with obesity did have an overall increased risk of death, while overweight on the other hand showed a trend towards lower mortality.ConclusionsMost patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first weeks of the epidemic in Belgium were admitted with severe disease and the overall case fatality rate was high. The identified risk factors for mortality are not easily amenable at short term, underscoring the lasting need of effective therapeutic and preventative measures.
Highlights
Belgium was among the first countries in Europe with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) cases
From when the first patient with COVID-19 was admitted on March 11 to April 15, 364 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients had been admitted to our hospital, of which 319 patients met the inclusion criteria (Fig. 1)
Most patients had an important degree of hypoxemia, with 88% of patients having a partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) below 80 mmHg without supplemental oxygen (Table 2)
Summary
Belgium was among the first countries in Europe with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) cases. Risk factors for severe disease in COVID-19 patients have been described in Chinese and United States (US) cohorts, good quality studies reporting on clinical characteristics, risk factors and outcome of European COVID-19 patients are still scarce. Several publications addressed clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the early weeks of the pandemic and determined risk factors for severe disease in Chinese and US cohorts [4, 5]. Belgium was among the first countries in Europe with confirmed COVID-19 cases [8]. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care centre early in the Belgian epidemic and identify independent risk factors for hospital mortality
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