Table 1.

Patient Demographics and Clinical Characteristics for COVID-19 Cases and non-COVID-19 Controls

	Cases (n=17)		Controls (n=13)
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Age	68	15	66	11
Post-mortem interval (hours)	20	24	20	9
Days of symptoms prior to hospitalization	6	5	NA
Hospitalization days (a)	19	18	3.3	8.4
	N	( % )	N	( % )
Sex
Female	8	( 47 )	5	( 38 )
Male	9	( 53 )	8	( 63 )
Ethnicity
Caucasian	6	( 35 )	11	( 85 )
Declined to report	3	( 38 )	0	( 0 )
Psychiatric diagnosis
None	14	( 82 )	13	( 100 )
Anxiety/depression	3	( 18 )	0	( 0 )
Pre-existing cognitive impairment	3	( 18 )	0	( 0 )
Neurological/psychiatric symptoms at hospital presentation	7	( 41 )	2	( 15 )
Steroids during hospitalization	5 / 8	( 63 )	0	( 0 )
Tocilizumab/remdesivir during hospitalization	3 / 8	( 36 )	0	( 0 )
Other immunosuppressive medications	2 / 8	( 25 )	0	( 0 )
Blood inflammatory markers during hospitalization (ESR, CRP, LDH, ferritin)
Elevated	11	( 65 )	0	( 0 )
Not measured	6	( 35 )	13	( 100 )
Intubated	9	( 53 )	1	( 8 )
Stroke at death	5	( 29 )	0	( 0 )
Primary cause of death
Cardiovascular	4	( 24 )	6	( 46 )
Infection (ileus, broncopneumonia, bacterial endocarditis, sepsis)	11	( 65 )	5	( 39 )
Uremia	0	( 0 )	1	( 8 )
Stroke/dissection	2	( 11 )	0	( 0 )
Accidental	0	( 0 )	1	( 8 )
Positive brain toxicology (b)	10	( 59 )	1	( 13 )
Positive blood toxicology (c)	NT		2	( 25 )
Tobacco use disorder	1	( 6 )	1	( 13 )

Note:

^(a)Agonal hospitalization time was available for 5 of the controls; average was 5 hours.

^(b)Cases: 4 patients intubated with propofol, fentanyl, benzodiazepine, dexmedetomidine. One patient on comfort care with fentanyl and benzodiazepine. Controls: Lidocaine measured in one post-mortem brain.

^(c)One control had lidocaine, N-acetylprocainamide, and procainamide, another had caffeine and lidocaine.

NT = Not tested, due to limited resources during initial months of pandemic. NA = not available.