Features of severe COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

To systematically review clinical and biochemical characteristics associated with the severity of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related disease (COVID-19).

Systematic review of observational studies from PubMed, ISI Web of Science, SCOPUS and Cochrane databases including people affected by COVID-19 and reporting data according to the severity of the disease. Data were combined with odds ratio (OR) and metanalysed. Severe COVID-19 was defined by acute respiratory distress syndrome, intensive care unit admission and death.

We included 12 studies with 2794 patients, of whom 596 (21.33%) had severe disease. A slightly higher age was found in severe vs non-severe disease. We found that prevalent cerebrovascular disease (odds ratio [OR] 3.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.73-7.72), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR: 2.39, 95% CI 1.10-5.19), prevalent cardiovascular disease (OR: 2.84, 95% CI 1.59-5.10), diabetes (OR: 2.78, 95% CI 2.09-3.72), hypertension (OR: 2.24, 95% CI 1.63-3.08), smoking (OR: 1.54, 95% CI 1.07-2.22) and male sex (OR: 1.22, 95% CI 1.01-1.49) were associated with severe disease. Furthermore, increased procalcitonin (OR: 8.21, 95% CI 4.48-15.07), increased D-Dimer (OR: 5.67, 95% CI 1.45-22.16) and thrombocytopenia (OR: 3.61, 95% CI 2.62-4.97) predicted severe infection.

Characteristics associated with the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection may allow an early identification and management of patients with poor outcomes.