Presenting characteristics, laboratory tests, and echocardiographic parameters
In this study, 34 patients with COVID-19 in Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital were retrospectively enrolled; these included 19 critical ill patients and 15 seriously ill patients. All the patients were treated with ventilation therapy; 16 patients received non-invasive ventilator support, with an average duration of ventilation of 7.3 ± 4.5 days; 16 patients received both non-invasive and invasive ventilation support (average duration, non-invasive: 3.8 ± 2.9 days vs invasive: 15.3 ± 7.3 days); 2 patients received invasive ventilation support from the beginning of follow-up (25.0 ± 7.1 days). There were 3 (8.8%) deaths during follow-up.
According to whether patients were successfully weaned from the ventilator, they were divided into two groups: the weaning success (group I) and weaning failure group (group II). There were 26 patients in group I, including 15 males and 11 females and 8 patients in group II, all of whom were male. Patients in group II were significantly older than those in group I (P < 0.047 ).
The myocardial injury markers were significantly higher in group II than group I (Table 1). The interleukin 6 (IL-6) and D-dimer levels were also significantly higher in group II than in group I (P = 0.01 andP = 0.002 , respectively). The IVSd was thicker (P < 0.001 ) and, importantly, the PASP was higher (P < 0.01 ) in group II than in group I (61.63 ± 13.53 mmHg vs 24.27 ± 7.70 mmHg) (Table 1). Other characteristics, such as body temperature, comorbidities history, creatine kinase, procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), brain natriuretic peptide, OI, LVEF, and LVDd showed no insignificance between the two groups (Table 1). The line chart of PASP in the two groups showed that the average PASP in group II was significantly higher than that in group I from the 28th day of follow-up (Figure 1).