Metabolic Syndrome Is Associated with a Longer Complicated ICU Stay and Greater Mortality in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19

Pereira, Leanne Namdarizandi Vahid Kasan Shalemar Ann Fatuyi Michael Tappuni Bassman Kaseer Belal Brandt Dominique M.; Shemisa, Kamal Elabidin Awfa Zain Sharma Vivek

Risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia are associated with higher rates of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Little is known about clinical outcomes in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) hospitalized with COVID-19. We sought to investigate the clinical predictors and hospital outcomes. Data were collected from 321 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at two affiliate hospitals between Jan 1 and July 31, 2020. Patients were identified as having MetS by meeting three of the five standard criteria on hospital admission. Among 321 patients (median age 67 years), 50.3% were female, and 48% had MetS. MetS patients had a higher prevalence of diabetes (64 vs. 9%), hypertension (64 vs. 30%), hyperlipidemia (57 vs. 22%), CAD (26 vs. 13%) and CKD (32 vs. 16%), P<0.001. MetS patients also had higher systolic blood pressure (131 vs. 124 mmHg), TGs (147 vs. 91 mg/dl) and lower HDL (41 vs. 64 mg/dl), p<0.05. MetS was significantly associated with multiple adverse clinical outcomes (Fig1). Cardiac arrest was higher in MetS patients (OR 2.12 [CI 0.871-5.141]) but was not statistically significant. We observed that MetS in hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased the odds of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, ARDS diagnosis and hospital readmission at 30 days. Higher mortality was thus more common in MetS compared to patients without MetS.