The long-term evolution of COVID-19 is unknown, making it necessary to study the persistence of symptoms over time and their impact on quality of life in people who have had the disease. We analyzed these aspects 1 year after admission for COVID-19 and explored the influence of treatment with systemic corticosteroids during the acute phase of the illness. This observational cohort study took place in a tertiary hospital in March and April 2021 and included people admitted due to infection with SARS-CoV-2 in March, April, or May 2020. We excluded patients who had died, were unreachable or had substantial cognitive impairment. A telephone survey was undertaken to assess the presence of symptoms related to COVID-19 and to administer the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire. Other variables collected were demographic and clinical data along with the treatment received and the evolution over time. We analyzed 76 patients, including 44 who did not receive corticosteroids and 32 who did. Most symptoms were less frequent in the group that received corticosteroids, with statistically significant differences for headache, dysphagia, chest pain, and depression. These patients also showed significantly better outcomes in the SF-36 domains for "bodily pain" and "mental health."Corticosteroids administered in the acute phase of COVID-19 could attenuate the presence of long-term symptoms and improve patients' quality of life.

The significant impact of COVID-19 worldwide has made it necessary to develop tools to identify patients at high risk of severe disease and death. This work aims to validate the RIM Score-COVID in the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry. The RIM Score-COVID is a simple nomogram with high predictive capacity for in-hospital death due to COVID-19 designed using clinical and analytical parameters of patients diagnosed in the first wave of the pandemic. The nomogram uses five variables measured on arrival to the emergency department (ED): age, sex, oxygen saturation, C-reactive protein level, and neutrophil-to-platelet ratio. Validation was performed in the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, which included consecutive patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 in Spain. The cohort was divided into three time periods: T1 from February 1 to June 10, 2020 (first wave), T2 from June 11 to December 31, 2020 (second wave, pre-vaccination period), and T3 from January 1 to December 5, 2021 (vaccination period). The model’s accuracy in predicting in-hospital COVID-19 mortality was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC). Clinical and laboratory data from 22,566 patients were analyzed: 15,976 (70.7%) from T1, 4,233 (18.7%) from T2, and 2,357 from T3 (10.4%). AUROC of the RIM Score-COVID in the entire SEMI-COVID-19 Registry was 0.823 (95%CI 0.819–0.827) and was 0.834 (95%CI 0.830–0.839) in T1, 0.792 (95%CI 0.781–0.803) in T2, and 0.799 (95%CI 0.785–0.813) in T3. The RIM Score-COVID is a simple, easy-to-use method for predicting in-hospital COVID-19 mortality that uses parameters measured in most EDs. This tool showed good predictive ability in successive disease waves. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11739-023-03200-3.

Los autores declaran no tener conflicto de intereses alguno. Para la realización del estudio no se ha recibido financiación.

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