[Factors associated to death in patients hospitalized due to COVID-19]

SARS-CoV-2 virus was notified by the World Health Organization in January 2020 as a global emergency, due to its intense transmission, and clinical picture, that is aggravated in susceptible people.

To describe the factors associated with death in COVID-19 and pneumonia patients hospitalized in a thirdlevel center.

An undivided case-control study was carried out. It was conducted an interview to obtain general information; from the medical record were collected hospitalization data, radiological images, laboratory parameters, and treatments used. It was used descriptive statistics. Student's t, Mann-Whitney U, and chi-squared were used to identify variables associated with death, and models of adjusted binary logistic regression to propose which variables of the patient's history, clinical parameters and treatments explained the death.

We treated 5339 patients with suspicion of COVID-19: 3117 positive (59%), 1029 hospitalized due to pneumonia, and 513 deaths (16.46%). For the analysis, 1110 patients were taken, 399 death cases were selected and 357 controls discharged due to improvement. The average age was 57.8 years; 59% were male.

The variables associated with mortality were: patients older than 40 years, chest radiography image > 50% involvement, intubation, lactic dehydrogenase > 500, C-reactive protein > 10, and organ failure; variables associated with improvement were: stay in the intensive care unit, use of broad spectrum parenteral antibiotics, steroids, and use of the anticoagulant enoxyheparin. Sex, diabetes, and comorbidities did not show significant association.