The study done on 1,095 patients hospitalised with COVID-19, discovered that two easily measurable signs of health, respiration rate, and blood-oxygen saturation are distinctly predictive of higher mortality.
WASHINGTON : A new study on COVID patients has found that abnormal blood-oxygen levels and breathing rates are strong predictors of poor patient outcomes in hospitals.
The study, published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, done on 1,095 patients hospitalised with COVID-19, discovered that two easily measurable signs of health, respiration rate, and blood-oxygen saturation are distinctly predictive of higher mortality. Notably, the authors said, anyone who receives a positive COVID-19 screening test can easily monitor for these two signs at home.
This context is lacking in current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tells people with COVID-19 to seek medical attention when they experience overt symptoms such as "trouble breathing" and "persistent pain or pressure in the chest" - indications that may be absent even when respiration and blood oxygen have reached dangerous levels, the authors say.
"These findings apply to the lived experience of the majority of patients with COVID-19: being at home, feeling anxious, wondering how to know whether their illness will progress and wondering when it makes sense to go to the hospital," said Dr. Neal Chatterjee of the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Chatterjee and fellow cardiologist Dr. Nona Sotoodehnia were co-lead authors of the paper. They said the findings suggest that, for some people with COVID-19, by the time they feel bad enough to come to the hospital, a window for early medical intervention might have passed.
"Initially, most patients with COVID don't have difficulty breathing. They can have quite low oxygen saturation and still be asymptomatic," said Sotoodehnia. "If patients follow the current guidance, because they may not get short of breath until their blood oxygen is quite low, then we are missing a chance to intervene early with life-saving treatment."
新聞來源：
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/covid-mortality-associated-with-2-signs-easily-measurable-at-home-study-11621861313415.html
