Intensive care unit: mortality score in early prediction of mortality in critical COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Abstract Aim: The mortality data available in the literature with regard to patients infected with SARS-COV-2, thus requiring hospitalization in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are not sufficient. This research aims to compare the correlation between COVID-19 Mortality Ratios (CMR), AST/ALT and neutrophil/lymphocyte (N/L) ratios of non-smoker COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the ICU and their mortality rates. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 77 patients hospitalized in the ICU. Female participants constituted 64.9% (n = 50) of the study group while male made up 35.1% (n = 27); the mean age was 61.3±14.3 and 66.2% (n = 51) of the patients died. To exclude the adverse effect of smoking on mortality, patients were confirmed to be non-smokers by analyzing the cotinine levels in urine samples. For this purpose, patients' age, gender, comorbidities, fever, pulse, blood pressure, saturation values, APACHE scores and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Results: In the study, 66.2% (n=51) of the patients died during follow-up. Age, urea, creatinine, AST/ALT, N/L ratio and CMR values of the nonsurvivors were significantly higher than those of the survivors. The systolic blood pressure and lymphocyte values of non-survivors were lower than survivors. Conclusions: The conclusion of the study revealed that CMR scores, AST/ALT levels and the N/L ratio can effectively be utilized in early period to project the mortality rates of non (active) smoking patients with critical COVID-19 infection hospitalized in the ICU.