TABLE 2.
Characteristics of the arterial blood gas analyses collected in ambient air at baseline.
| COVID-19 (n = 48) | Non-COVID-19 (n = 59) | p | |
| Temperature (°C) | 37.8 [36.9–38.3] | 37 [36.5–37] | <0.0001 |
| PO2 (mmHg) | 71.5 [62.6–78.9] | 76.1 [65.8–89.5] | NS |
| PCO2 (mmHg) | 35.7 [32.1–38.4] | 35.7 [30.2–38.7] | NS |
| pH | 7.44 [7.42–7.46] | 7.43 [7.41–7.48] | NS |
| Hemoglobin (g.dl–1) | 14.5 [13.3–15.6] | 13.4 [12.4–15] | 0.026 |
| Oxyhemoglobin (%) | 91.9 [89.8–93.9] | 93.3 [91–94.6] | NS |
| Oxygen content (ml.100 ml–1) | 18.9 [16.9–20.6] | 17.5 [15.9–19.2] | NS |
| Carboxyhemoglobin (%) | 0.9 [0.7–1.2] | 1.3 [0.8–2] | 0.002 |
| Methemoglobin (%) | 1 [0.9–1.2] | 0.7 [0.6–1] | <0.0001 |
| P50* (mmHg) | 26.1 [25.4–26.7] | 26 [24.6–27.3] | NS |
Data are presented as medians and interquartile ranges between square brackets. NS, non-significant.*P50: the number of exploitable values (saturation < 97%) was 41 and 56 for each group, respectively. Bold values are significant p-values (i.e., under 0.05).