Comparative analysis of clinical and biological characteristics of COVID-19 patients: A retrospective cohort study

Abir Yahyaoui; Abdessamad Amrani; Amjad Idrissi; Sabrina Belmahi; Oumaima Nassiri; Boutaina Mouhoub; Elhoucine Sebbar; Siham Hamaz; Mohammed Choukri

doi:10.1016/j.cegh.2022.101184

Comparative analysis of clinical and biological characteristics of COVID-19 patients: A retrospective cohort study

Clin Epidemiol Glob Health. 2023 Jan-Feb:19:101184. doi: 10.1016/j.cegh.2022.101184. Epub 2022 Nov 25.

Authors

Abir Yahyaoui^{1

2}, Abdessamad Amrani^{1

2}, Amjad Idrissi^{1

2}, Sabrina Belmahi^{1

2}, Oumaima Nassiri^{1

2}, Boutaina Mouhoub^{1

2}, Elhoucine Sebbar^{1

2}, Siham Hamaz^{1

2

3}, Mohammed Choukri^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Central Laboratory, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Oujda, Morocco.
² Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Oujda, Mohammed First University, Oujda, Morocco.
³ Infectious Diseases, Immunohematology and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Oujda, Morocco.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly evolved into a pandemic since it was first reported in December 2019. thus, SARS-CoV-2 has become a major global public health issue.

Objective: The objective of this work is to compare demographics, comorbidities, clinical symptoms, biology and imaging findings between severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients and to identify clinical and biological risk factors and biomarkers for the development of severe COVID-19 as well as predictive thresholds for severity in order to best rationalize management and decrease the morbidity and mortality caused by this condition.

Patients and methods: This is a single-center retrospective study, from June 25 to December 31, 2021, on 521 patients at the level of the unit COVID-19 of the central laboratory of the Mohammed VI University Hospital Center Oujda, then classified into two groups according to the severity of the disease.

Results: Out of a total of 521 patients, a severe group including 336 cases (64.5%) and a non-severe group with 185 cases (35.5%). Hypertension, diabetes and obesity were noted in the majority of patients. Severe COVID-19 cases had higher C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, D-dimer, ferritin, elevated white blood cell count, and lower lymphocyte count than non-severe cases with a significant difference between the two groups. The areas under the curve (AUC) for C-reactive protein, procalcitonin and D-dimer were 0.886, 0.708, and 0.736 respectively. The optimal thresholds predictive of severity were 105 mg/l for C-reactive protein, 0.13 ng/ml for procalcitonin, 7420/μl for white blood cell count, and 0.55 mg/l for D-dimer.

Conclusion: Comparison of the proportion of clinical, biological and radiological data between severe and non-severe cases of COVID-19, as well as identification of biomarkers for the development of severe form in the present study, will allow optimal streamlining of management with rapid triage of patients.

Keywords: Biomarkers; COVID-19; Risk factor; SARS-CoV-2; Severe group.