USA: The presence of COPD in hospitalized COVID-19 patients may lead to a higher risk of mortality, suggests a recent study in the journal CHEST. Further, COPD prevalence in these patients was found to be even lower than the general population, this may be due to higher precautionary measures taken by COPD patients for coronavirus.
The findings of the study were presented at the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) 2020 Annual Meeting held from October 18-21, 2020.
The current COVID-19, which continues to spread worldwide, is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) infection. Some of the published studies have raised concerns on the association between COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and worse clinical outcomes in COVID-19. The aim of this study by Gerard Kiernan and Vikramaditya Samala Venkata from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, United States, was to determine the association between baseline COPD and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients.
A total of 22 studies from 8 countries comprising of more than 11,000 patients (mean age-56; 58% were male), were analyzed.
Key findings of the study include:
Hypertension was the most prevalent comorbidity in hospitalized COVID-19 patients (42%), followed by diabetes mellitus (23%).
COPD was present in 5% of the patients(437/9337) and was associated with higher rates of mortality (OR 3.23).
Interestingly, while 37% of patients(3000/8034) were smokers, smoking was not associated with worsening disease severity (OR 1.52).
"Our findings are significant as this will alert clinicians to the worse prognosis of COVID-19 infection in patients with a history of COPD and it will raise a question for future studies to look at the association between baseline COPD and COVID-19," wrote the authors.
"More randomized studies are needed to assess the relationship between COPD, smoking status and prognosis in COVID-19 patients.," they concluded.
The study, "COVID-19 and COPD: Pooled Analysis of Observational Studies," is published in the journal CHEST.
DOI: https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(20)34412-3/fulltext