Virologic and clinical characteristics for prognosis of severe COVID-19: a retrospective observational study in Wuhan, China

Sha Fu; Xiaoyu Fu; Yang Song; Min Li; Pin-hua Pan; Tao Tang; Chunhu Zhang; Tiejian Jiang; Deming Tan; Xuegong Fan; Xinping Sha; Jingdong Ma; Yan Huang; Shaling Li; Yixiang Zheng; Zhaoxin Qian; Zeng Xiong; Lizhi Xiao; Huibao Long; Jianghai Chen; Yi Ouyang

Corticosteroids were used frequently for the treatment of severe patients to control the high amounts of cytokines. However, it was found that corticosteroid therapy was closely associated with the poor recovery of severely infected patients. Therefore, corticosteroids should be administrated with great caution if necessary. In addition to the viral shedding, other risk factors for slower recovery in severe COVID-19 patients were also identified. Consistent with previous studies 19, 20 , it was confirmed that older age, hypoproteinemia, and increased levels of LDH were associated with the poor clinical outcome of COVID-19 patients. In particular, older age, hyperlipemia, hypoproteinemia, corticosteroid therapy, and increased levels of FIB and TG were associated with the poor recovery of COVID-19 patients. Up-todate information regarding the risk factors associated with lung lesion resolution in severe-condition COVID-19 patients is scarce. The clinical data in this study suggested that all of the patients had lung lesions on chest CT, and the consolidation pattern on chest CT was closely associated with poor recovery. Intriguingly, prognostic factors, including hyperlipemia and hypoproteinemia, were also closely linked to the odds of impaired lung lesion resolution. However, the association of hyperlipidemia and COVID-19 prognosis has not been reported. A previous study All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.