Table 2. Baseline characteristics in hospitalised and non-hospitalised cases in COVID-19 and controls.
| Measures | COVID-19 | p-value | Viral controls | p-value | Bacterial controls | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n = 191 | n = 227 | n = 96 | |||||||
| No hospitalisation | Hospitalisation | No hospitalisation | Hospitalisation | No hospitalisation | Hospitalisation | ||||
| n = 76 | n = 115 | n = 169 | n = 58 | n = 13 | n = 83 | ||||
| Demographics | |||||||||
| Age—years | 46 [36–57] | 62 [52–75] | <0.001 | 48 [34–61] | 65 [52–75] | <0.001 | 65 [37–69] | 73 [59–80] | 0.027 |
| Female | 40 (53) | 44 (38) | 0.050 | 82 (49) | 23 (40) | 0.243 | 3 (23) | 34 (41) | 0.218 |
| Comorbidities—no (%) | |||||||||
| Cardiac diseasea | 6 (8) | 32 (28) | 0.001 | 23 (14) | 28 (48) | <0.001 | 2 (15) | 39 (47) | 0.032 |
| • Valvular cardiopathy | 0 (0) | 8 (7) | 0.019 | 3 (2) | 6 (10) | 0.004 | 0 (0) | 7 (8) | 0.277 |
| • Coronary artery disease | 2 (3) | 19 (17) | 0.003 | 10 (6) | 16 (28) | <0.001 | 0 (0) | 17 (20) | 0.072 |
| • Prior myocardial infarction | 1 (1) | 8 (7) | 0.072 | 5 (3) | 7 (12) | 0.007 | 0 (0) | 10 (12) | 0.186 |
| • Atrial fibrillation | 1 (1) | 8 (7) | 0.072 | 4 (2) | 6 (10) | 0.011 | 1 (8) | 22 (27) | 0.139 |
| Hypertension | 15 (20) | 66 (57) | <0.001 | 56 (33) | 31 (53) | 0.006 | 5 (38) | 50 (60) | 0.140 |
| Overweight | 12 (16) | 62 (54) | <0.001 | 43 (25) | 26 (45) | 0.006 | 3 (23) | 19 (23) | 0.988 |
| Diabetes | 3 (4) | 31 (27) | <0.001 | 13 (8) | 14 (24) | 0.001 | 3 (23) | 21 (25) | 0.863 |
| Ever smoker | 19 (25) | 39 (34) | 0.190 | 65 (38) | 40 (69) | <0.001 | 8 (62) | 46 (55) | 0.679 |
| Pneumopathyb | 14 (18) | 23 (20) | 0.787 | 55 (33) | 33 (57) | 0.001 | 6 (46) | 33 (40) | 0.662 |
| • Asthma | 13 (17) | 12 (10) | 0.181 | 35 (21) | 6 (10) | 0.077 | 4 (31) | 9 (11) | 0.051 |
| • COPD | 0 (0) | 9 (8) | 0.012 | 15 (9) | 22 (38) | <0.001 | 1 (8) | 20 (24) | 0.183 |
| Hepatopathy | 5 (7) | 9 (8) | 0.746 | 11 (7) | 12 (21) | 0.002 | 2 (15) | 12 (14) | 0.930 |
| CKD | 0 (0) | 26 (23) | <0.001 | 6 (4) | 8 (14) | 0.005 | 1 (8) | 24 (29) | 0.105 |
| Stroke | 2 (3) | 8 (7) | 0.189 | 2 (1) | 7 (12) | <0.001 | 0 (0) | 10 (12) | 0.186 |
| Cancer | 4 (5) | 13 (11) | 0.151 | 5 (3) | 7 (12) | 0.007 | 2 (15) | 16 (19) | 0.738 |
| Immunodeficiency | 3 (4) | 8 (7) | 0.382 | 8 (5) | 3 (5) | 0.893 | 1 (8) | 13 (16) | 0.449 |
| Symptoms at ED—(%) | |||||||||
| Symptom duration before ED—days | 7 [2–12] | 7 [3–10] | 0.569 | 5 [2–10] | 4 [2–10] | 0.724 | 6 [4–10] | 3 [2–7] | 0.017 |
| Cough | 50 (66) | 76 (66) | 0.966 | 137 (81) | 45 (78) | 0.566 | 12 (92) | 48 (58) | 0.017 |
| Dyspnea | 31 (41) | 50 (43) | 0.713 | 96 (57) | 40 (69) | 0.103 | 3 (23) | 46 (55) | 0.030 |
| Vital signs at ED | |||||||||
| Systolic BP—mmHg | 135 [123–151] | 134 [120–148] | 0.645 | 142 [127–155] | 140 [120–160] | 0.939 | 127 [119–143] | 133 [120–153] | 0.516 |
| Diastolic BP—mmHg | 83 [74–90] | 80 [70–90] | 0.127 | 82 [74–89] | 82 [71–89] | 0.801 | 79 [74–94] | 80 [68–86] | 0.516 |
| Heart rate—/min | 87 [80–100] | 90 [80–105] | 0.201 | 86 [75–100] | 92 [78–102] | 0.142 | 94 [84–100] | 98 [77–110] | 0.825 |
| Blood oxygen saturation—% | 98 [97–99] | 95 [93–97] | <0.001 | 98 [97–98] | 96 [94–98] | <0.001 | 96 [95–99] | 95 [92–97] | 0.077 |
| Respiratory rate—/min | 17 [15–21] | 23 [16–25] | <0.001 | 17 [15–20] | 20 [16–25] | <0.001 | 17 [15–20] | 24 [20–28] | <0.001 |
| Temperature - °C | 37.0 [36.6–37.4] | 37.3 [36.8–38.2] | 0.003 | 36.8 [36.5–37.2] | 37.0 [36.6–37.9] | 0.041 | 37.1 [36.7–38.1] | 37.4 [37.0–38.5] | 0.143 |
| Laboratory parameters at ED | |||||||||
| IL-6—pg/ml | 4.34 [2.09–10.74] | 40.90 [20.92–64.17] | <0.001 | 3.10 [1.81–9.67] | 21.93 [9.86–82.68] | <0.001 | 28.34 [6.47–125.04] | 94.83 [35.26–356.17] | 0.022 |
| CRP—mg/l | 2.3 [0.9–11.1] | 59.3 [31.5–126.9] | <0.001 | 2.3 [0.7–9.4] | 13.9 [3.1–49.8] | <0.001 | 15.1 [5.4–46.6] | 85.3 [24.0–142.2] | 0.011 |
| PCT—ng/ml | 0.026 [0.013–0.045] | 0.082 [0.042–0.193] | <0.001 | 0.028 [0.014–0.047] | 0.048 [0.015–0.102] | 0.006 | 0.066 [0.037–0.101] | 0.170 [0.052–0.671] | 0.085 |
| Ferritin - μg/l | 193 [95–361] | 672 [324–1258] | <0.001 | 126 [78–226] | 165 [64–301] | 0.240 | 177 [124–293] | 275 [156–477] | 0.198 |
| Leukocytes—G/l | 5.83 [4.59–7.15] | 6.67 [5.25–8.93] | 0.012 | 8.21 [6.61–10.38] | 9.16 [7.12–12.29] | 0.006 | 9.62 [8.56–11.32] | 11.14 [8.73–14.73] | 0.349 |
a cardiac disease includes valvular cardiopathy, coronary artery disease, prior myocardial infarction, and atrial fibrillation
b pneumopathy includes asthma and COPD.
p-values for comparison of clinical characteristics regarding hospitalisation after ED visit, continuous variables were calculated using the Mann-Whitney-U test, and categorical variables using the Pearson χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate. Values are numbers (percentages) or median [interquartile range]
COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019, COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, CKD = chronic kidney disease, ED = emergency department, BP = blood pressure, IL-6 = interleukin-6, CRP = c-reactive protein, PCT = procalcitonin.