ACTA CARDIOLOGICA, vol.76, no.2, pp.132-139, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
Background: to identify the potential cardiovascular risk factors associated with mortality in
hospitalised COVID-19 patients.
Methods: All consecutive patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of our institute for
COVID-19 from 1 April 2020 to 20 May 2020 were included. Patient characteristics including
complete medical history and comorbid diseases, admission and 7th day blood test results and
clinical characteristics were compared between survivors and non-survivors.
Results: There were no significant difference between survivors and non-survivors regarding
age, gender, and pre-existing coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary stenting.
Admission D-dimer and NT-proBNP levels of non-survivors were significantly higher than survivors. CRP, procalcitonin, creatine kinase (CK) and troponin I levels on 7th day of admission were
significantly higher in non-survivors compared to survivors. In addition, both admission and 7th
day lymphocyte count were lower in non-survivors compared to that of the survivors. CRP
declined from admission to 7th day of hospitalisation in survivors, whereas a median 6.75 mg/L
increase was observed in non survivors. The peak and minimum CRP, procalcitonin and levels
were significantly higher in non-survivors than survivors. The peak NT-proBNP level of non-survivors was also significantly higher than that of the survivors. Intubation, lower GFR values and
higher NT-proBNP values were predictive for death.
Conclusion: The prothrombotic coagulopathy mediated by the endothelial interaction with
SARS-CoV-2 may also have role in unfavourable prognosis in COVID-19. These readily available
biomarkers might be useful in risk stratification of COVID-19 cases.