Clinical characteristics of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Spain: results from the SEMI-COVID-19 Network

Abstract

Background. Spain has been one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective. To create a registry of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Spain in order to improve our knowledge of the clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic aspects of this disease. Methods. A multicentre retrospective cohort study, including consecutive patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 throughout Spain. Epidemiological and clinical data, additional tests at admission and at seven days, treatments administered, and progress at 30 days of hospitalization were collected from electronic medical records. Results. Up to April 30th 2020, 6,424 patients from 109 hospitals were included. Their median age was 69.1 years (range: 18-102 years) and 56.9% were male. Prevalences of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus were 50.2%, 39.7%, and 18.7%, respectively. The most frequent symptoms were fever (86.2%) and cough (76.5%). High values of ferritin (72.4%), lactate dehydrogenase (70.2%), and D-dimer (61.5%), as well as lymphopenia (52.6%), were frequent. The most used antiviral drugs were hydroxychloroquine (85.7%) and lopinavir/ritonavir (62.4%). 31.5% developed respiratory distress. Overall mortality rate was 21.1%, with a marked increase with age (50-59 years: 4.2%, 60-69 years: 9.1%, 70-79 years: 21.4%, 80-89 years: 42.5%, ≥ 90 years: 51.1%). Conclusions. The SEMI-COVID-19 Network provides data on the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Spain. Patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Spain are mostly severe cases, as one in three patients developed respiratory distress and one in five patients died. These findings confirm a close relationship between advanced age and mortality.

Characteristics, complications and outcomes among 1549 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a secondary hospital in Madrid, Spain: a retrospective case series study

“…Surge critical care beds were made available in the post-anaesthesia care unit (6 beds) and the outpatient surgery post-anaesthesia care unit (12 beds), to a maximum of 32 critical care beds. Patients' baseline characteristics were similar to the largest published series in Spain, 10 although our patients were older and with a higher proportion of men compared with other tertiary Spanish hospital series. 9 We found that younger patients showed a high incidence of fever, cough, headache, muscle pain and diarrhoea, whereas older patients showed a less specific clinical presentation.…”

“…The overall CFR in our cohort was 21.2% (296/1393 cases). The median length of stay was 9 days (IQR [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Among the 296 deaths, 48 occurred in the first 48 hours and the rest during hospitalisation.…”

“…The available data from Spain refer to tertiary hospitals, multicentric studies or primary care settings. [9][10][11][12] This study describes the clinical characteristics, severity, types of treatments and overall outcomes of patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to ILUH in Madrid (Spain).…”

Severity scores in COVID-19 pneumonia: a multicenter, retrospective, cohort study

“…This work is a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients with SARS-CoV2 infection, aged ≥18 years, and with CAP who were hospitalized between March 1 st and May 28 th 2020 in Spain and included in the aforementioned SEMI-COVID-19 Registry. 29 The registry is an initiative of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI, for its initials in Spanish), its characteristics have been described elsewhere. 29 We defined PSI, CURB-65, MuLBSTA, and qSOFA as originally described.…”

“…29 The registry is an initiative of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI, for its initials in Spanish), its characteristics have been described elsewhere. 29 We defined PSI, CURB-65, MuLBSTA, and qSOFA as originally described. 9,10,11,12 The PSI is a scale with 19 variables with different point values.…”