Frontiers in Medicine (Mar 2022)

Mortality and Pulmonary Embolism in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome From COVID-19 vs. Non-COVID-19

  • Demetrios J. Kutsogiannis,
  • Abdulrahman Alharthy,
  • Abdullah Balhamar,
  • Fahad Faqihi,
  • John Papanikolaou,
  • Saleh A. Alqahtani,
  • Ziad A. Memish,
  • Peter G. Brindley,
  • Laurent Brochard,
  • Laurent Brochard,
  • Laurent Brochard,
  • Dimitrios Karakitsos,
  • Dimitrios Karakitsos,
  • Dimitrios Karakitsos

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.800241
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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PurposeThere may be a difference in respiratory mechanics, inflammatory markers, and pulmonary emboli in COVID-19 associated ARDS vs. ARDS from other etiologies. Our purpose was to determine differences in respiratory mechanics, inflammatory markers, and incidence of pulmonary embolism in patients with and without COVID-19 associated ARDS admitted in the same period and treated with a similar ventilation strategy.MethodsA cohort study of COVID-19 associated ARDS and non COVID-19 patients in a Saudi Arabian center between June 1 and 15, 2020. We measured respiratory mechanics (ventilatory ratio (VR), recruitability index (RI), markers of inflammation, and computed tomography pulmonary angiograms.ResultsForty-two patients with COVID-19 and 43 non-COVID patients with ARDS comprised the cohort. The incidence of “recruitable” patients using the recruitment/inflation ratio was slightly lower in COVID-19 patients (62 vs. 86%; p = 0.01). Fifteen COVID-19 ARDS patients (35.7%) developed a pulmonary embolism as compared to 4 (9.3%) in other ARDS patients (p = 0.003). In COVID-19 patients, a D-Dimer ≥ 5.0 mcg/ml had a 73% (95% CI 45–92%) sensitivity and 89% (95% CI 71–98%) specificity for predicting pulmonary embolism. Crude 60-day mortality was higher in COVID-19 patients (35 vs. 15%; p = 0.039) but three multivariate analysis showed that independent predictors of 60-day mortality included the ventilatory ratio (OR 3.67, 95% CI 1.61–8.35), PaO2/FIO2 ratio (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87–0.99), IL-6 (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00–1.03), and D-dimer (OR 7.26, 95% CI 1.11–47.30) but not COVID-19 infection.ConclusionCOVID-19 patients were slightly less recruitable and had a higher incidence of pulmonary embolism than those with ARDS from other etiologies. A high D-dimer was predictive of pulmonary embolism in COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 infection was not an independent predictor of 60-day mortality in the presence of ARDS.

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