TABLE 3.
Indicators of disease severity in COVID-19 patients referred to the mild-to-moderate COVID-19 outpatient clinic by GPs according to the risk of early ED referral.
| Variable | Overall (n = 400) | Low risk (n = 186) | Moderate risk (n = 167) | High risk (n = 18) | P-value |
| SpO2 (%) | 96.9 (0.15) | 98 (0.183) | 96.2 (0.214) | 93.2 (0.639) | <0.0001 |
| 98 (96–99) | 98 (97–99) | 97 (95–98) | 93 (91–94) | <0.0001 | |
| RR (breaths/min) | 20 (17–22) | 18 (16–21) | 20 (18–22) | 22 (20–24) | <0.0001 |
| PaO2/FiO2 | 356 (325–395) | 371 (339–409) | 348 (303–373) | 314 (289–341) | <0.0001 |
| Blood exams | |||||
| CRP (mg/dL) | 18 (6–53) | 12 (2–28) | 35 (14–71) | 38 (29–56) | 0.00017 |
| LDH (U/L) | 251 (215–312) | 249 (209–294) | 247 (216–312) | 376 (329–394) | 0.029 |
| D-dimer (ng/L) | 0.5 (0.4–0.8) | 0.5 (0.4–0.7) | 0.6 (0.4–0.9) | 0.7 (0.4–0.8) | 0.26 |
| Neutrophils (x109/L) | 3.9 (2.7–5.5) | 3.3 (2.4–4.6) | 4.4 (3–6) | 5.5 (3.9–5.6) | 0.030 |
| Lymphocytes (x109/L) | 1.2 (0.9–1.6) | 1.3 (1.1–1.8) | 1.1 (0.9–1.3) | 0.7 (0.7–0.8) | 0.0023 |
| NLR | 3.1 (1.8–4.6) | 2.4 (1.6–3.7) | 3.5 (2.3–6.5) | 6.9 (3.1–8) | 0.0013 |
| Ferritin (ng/mL) | 392 (182–748) | 351 (138–647) | 428 (249–819) | 614 (539–1427) | 0.052 |
| Creatinine (mg/dL) | 0.9 (0.8–1.1) | 0.9 (0.8–1) | 1 (0.8–1.2) | 1 (0.9–1) | 0.019 |
| Lung ultrasound | |||||
| LUS | 6 (2–10) | 4 (1–8) | 7 (4–11) | 6 (4–9) | <0.0001 |
| White lung pattern | 203 (50.7) | 84 (45.2) | 106 (63.5) | 10 (55.6) | 0.0043 |
| Parenchymal consolidation | 61 (15.2) | 26 (14) | 31 (18.6) | 3 (16.7) | 0.54 |
MMCO, mild-to-moderate COVID-19 outpatient clinic; GP, general practitioner; ED, emergency department; SpO2, peripheral oxygen saturation; RR, respiratory rate; PaO2/FiO2, arterial oxygen partial pressure/fractional inspired oxygen; CRP, C reactive protein; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; NLR, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; LUS, lung ultrasound score.
The risk was calculated for 371 patients based on data availability.
Dichotomous variables were expressed as count (percentage) and continuous variables as median (interquartile range). SpO2 (%) was expressed as both mean (± standard deviation) and median (interquartile range).