Association of blood viscosity and device-free days among hospitalized patients with COVID-19

• Published in: Journal of intensive care 2023-05, Vol.11 (1), p.17-17, Article 17
• Main Authors: Waksman, Ori, Choi, Daein, Mar, Phyu, Chen, Qinzhong, Cho, Daniel J, Kim, HyoungSup, Smith, Robin L, Goonewardena, Sascha N, Rosenson, Robert S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Biomarkers; Blood; Blood cell count; Blood viscosity; C-reactive protein; Cardiovascular disease; Cellular proteins; Coronavirus-19; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Critical care medicine; Data collection; Diabetes; Drug therapy; Ethnicity; Health aspects; Hospital patients; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Hypoxic respiratory failure; Laboratories; Leukocytes; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mortality; Patients; Prognosis; Proteins; Rheology; Viscosity
• ISSN: 2052-0492; 2052-0492
• DOI: 10.1186/s40560-023-00665-4

Increased estimated whole blood viscosity (eWBV) predicts higher mortality in patients hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study assesses whether eWBV is an early predictor of non-fatal outcomes among patients hospitalized for acute COVID-19 infection. This retrospective cohort study included 9278 hospitalized COVID-19 patients diagnosed within 48 h of admission between February 27, 2020 to November 20, 2021 within the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Patients with missing values for major covariates, discharge information, and those who failed to meet the criteria for the non-Newtonian blood model were excluded. 5621 participants were included in the main analysis. Additional analyses were performed separately for 4352 participants who had measurements of white blood cell count, C-reactive protein and D-dimer. Participants were divided into quartiles based on estimated high-shear blood viscosity (eHSBV) and estimated low-shear blood viscosity (eLSBV). Blood viscosity was calculated using the Walburn-Schneck model. The primary outcome was evaluated as an ordinal scale indicating the number of days free of respiratory organ support through day 21, and those who died in-hospital were assigned a value of -1. Multivariate cumulative logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the association between quartiles of eWBV and events. Among 5621 participants, 3459 (61.5%) were male with mean age of 63.2 (SD 17.1) years. The linear modeling yielded an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 0.68 (95% CI 0.59-0.79, p value