CHEST Guidelines-Comparison-of-Hospitalized-Patients-With-ARDS-Caus

Comparison-of-Hospitalized-Patients-With-ARDS-Caus

Pdf Summary

The study compares clinical presentations and outcomes of patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19 versus those caused by H1N1 influenza. The analysis, conducted between different cohorts of hospitalized patients for COVID-19 (73 cases) and H1N1 (75 cases), explored differences in symptoms, imaging, treatments, and prognosis.<br /><br />Key findings include that COVID-19 patients were generally older than H1N1 patients and had more nonproductive coughs, fatigue, and gastrointestinal symptoms. H1N1 patients exhibited higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores, indicative of more severe illness. The PaO2/FiO2 ratio, a measure of lung oxygenation, was higher in COVID-19 patients, suggesting less severe respiratory failure compared to H1N1 patients.<br /><br />Imaging revealed that ground-glass opacities were more common in COVID-19 patients, while consolidation was more frequent in H1N1 cases. Furthermore, COVID-19 patients received a wider range of antiviral medications than H1N1 patients.<br /><br />The in-hospital mortality for COVID-19-induced ARDS was 28.8%, slightly lower than 34.7% for H1N1 patients, though this difference was not statistically significant. Adjusting for SOFA scores, H1N1 patients had a significantly higher mortality risk. Notably, a substantial proportion of COVID-19 patients were still hospitalized at the time of the study's conclusion.<br /><br />The study highlights important differences in clinical management and outcomes between these two viral infections, emphasizing the need for clinicians to use distinctive diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. It stresses the importance of differentiating between COVID-19 and H1N1 due to their distinct clinical courses, which hold implications for treatment and resource allocation in healthcare settings. Future research should focus on larger, prospective studies for more comprehensive data on COVID-19 treatment strategies.

Keywords

ARDS

COVID-19

H1N1 influenza

clinical presentations

outcomes

SOFA scores

PaO2/FiO2 ratio

ground-glass opacities

antiviral medications

mortality risk