Trajectories of hypoxemia and pulmonary mechanics of COVID-19 ARDS in the NorthCARDS dataset.

BACKGROUND

Understanding heterogeneity seen in patients with COVIDARDS and comparing to non-COVIDARDS may inform tailored treatments.

METHODS

A multidisciplinary team of frontline clinicians and data scientists worked to create the Northwell COVIDARDS dataset (NorthCARDS) leveraging over 11,542 COVID-19 hospital admissions. The data was then summarized to examine descriptive differences based on clinically meaningful categories of lung compliance, and to examine trends in oxygenation.

FINDINGS

Of the 1536 COVIDARDS patients in the NorthCARDS dataset, there were 531 (34.6%) who had very low lung compliance (< 20 ml/cmHO), 970 (63.2%) with low-normal compliance (20-50 ml/cmHO), and 35 (2.2%) with high lung compliance (> 50 ml/cmHO). The very low compliance group had double the median time to intubation compared to the low-normal group (107.3 h (IQR 25.8, 239.2) vs. 39.5 h (IQR 5.4, 91.6)). Overall, 68.8% (n = 1057) of the patients died during hospitalization. In comparison to non-COVIDARDS reports, there were less patients in the high compliance category (2.2% vs. 12%, compliance ≥ 50 mL/cmH20), and more patients with P/F ≤ 150 (59.8% vs. 45.6%). There is a statistically significant correlation between compliance and P/F ratio. The Oxygenation Index is the highest in the very low compliance group (12.51, SD(6.15)), and lowest in high compliance group (8.78, SD(4.93)).

CONCLUSIONS

The respiratory system compliance distribution of COVIDARDS is similar to non-COVIDARDS. In some patients, there may be a relation between time to intubation and duration of high levels of supplemental oxygen treatment on trajectory of lung compliance.