LAUSR

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions globally. Several studies have been carried out to uncover factors affecting the severity of the resulting infection. Available location-specific data concerning the affective demographics as well as clinical aspect of the disease remains limited. In this study, a number of non-clinical as well as the clinical parameters were investigated for their role in adverse progression of the disease in patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) in a private tertiary hospital in Peshawar. The prevalence of comorbidities hypertension and diabetes as well as mortality was higher in age group of 70-79 years. Dyspnea was significantly linked to sepsis, invasive ventilation, and mortality; its late presentation, i.e. 15 to 20 days was significantly associated with mortality (p-value < 0.02). Acute kidney injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome were found to be the most strongly associated with sepsis and septic shock. Neither remdesivir nor tocilizumab was effective in preventing the infection-related complications, invasive ventilation, and mortality. Overall, dyspnea was found to be an indicator of the worst progression of the disease. Furthermore, while some parameters were closely linked, others were not.