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. 2022 Nov 21;68(10):1458-1463.
doi: 10.1590/1806-9282.20220669. eCollection 2022.

Temporal progression of sepsis on critical care COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study

Petrus Lee  1 , Fernanda Bordignon Nunes  1 , Jorge Amilton Höher  2 , Gisele Branchini  1
Affiliations

Temporal progression of sepsis on critical care COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study

Petrus Lee et al. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). .

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to describe sepsis progression in critical COVID-19 patients using the SOFA score and investigate its relationship with mortality.

Methods: Three researchers collected and analyzed retrospective clinical and laboratory data found in electronic health records from all patients admitted to a severe COVID-19 exclusive intensive care unit from March 2020 to October 2020. Mixed-effect logistic regression was used to evaluate SOFA (Sepsis-3) score variables as mortality prediction markers, while Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare mortality between groups of patients. Cox proportional hazard models were used to further stratify mortality association between variants.

Results: A total of 73 patients were included. Temporal COVID-19-related sepsis progression analysis indicates difference in degrees and timing between different organ dysfunction over time. Sepsis-3 Cardiovascular Dysfunction characterized by severe hypotension added to the use of any vasopressor drugs was the only parameter associated with in-hospital death during the first 5 days of hospital admission (OR 2.19; 95%CI 1.14-4.20; p=0.01).

Conclusion: Increased Sepsis-3 Cardiovascular Dysfunction score, characterized as hypotension associated with the use of vasopressor drugs in the first days of intensive care unit stay, is related to higher mortality in COVID-19 patients and may be a useful prognostic prediction tool.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: the authors declare there is no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. SOFA Cardiovascular Dysfunction Score progression over time comparing deceased and recovered patients in a COVID-19 exclusive intensive care unit.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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