LAUSR

Objective To describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a MERS-CoV referral hospital during the peak months of the pandemic. Design A single-center case series of hospitalized individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections in King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC), an academic tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, KSA. Clinical and biochemical markers were documented. Risks for ventilatory support, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death are presented. Results Out of 12,688 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR, 2,683 (21%) were positive for COVID-19. Of the latter, 605 (22%) patients required hospitalization with a median age of 55 years, and 368 (61%) were male. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (43%) and diabetes (42%). Most patients presented with fever (66%), dyspnea (65%), cough (61%), elevated IL-6 (93.5%), D-dimer (90.1%), CRP (86.1%), and lymphopenia (41.7%). No MERS-CoV co-infection was detected. Overall 91 patients (15%) died, risk factors associated with mortality were age of 65 years or older OR 2.29 [CI 1.43–3.67], presence of two or more comorbidities OR 3.17 [CI 2.00–5.02], symptoms duration of seven days or less OR 3.189 [CI (1.64 – 6.19]) lymphopenia OR 3.388 [CI 2.10–5.44], high CRP OR 2.85 [CI 1.1–7.32], high AST OR 2.95 [CI 1.77–4.90], high creatinine OR 3.71 [CI 2.30–5.99], and high troponin-I OR 2.84 [CI 1.33–6.05]. Conclusion There is a significant increase in severe cases of COVID-19. Mortality was associated with older age, shorter symptom duration, high CRP, low lymphocyte count, and end-organ damage.