Investigating the role of obstructive pulmonary diseases and eosinophil count at admission on all-cause mortality in SARS-CoV-2 patients A single center registry-based retrospective cohort study

IntroductionThe impact of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the setting of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is not clearly defined. Blood eosinophil count is a standard diagnostic test which, according to the previously published literature, might have a potential prognostic role on mortality in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.AimTo investigate the potential prognostic value of peripheral blood eosinophil count on all-cause mortality of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as to assess the impact of asthma or COPD premorbidity on all-cause mortality.Material and methodsWe conducted a retrospective registry-based cohort study. Survival analysis was performed by employing the Cox proportional hazards regression model at 30 days of follow-up. Prognostic value of eosinophil count on all-cause mortality was assessed using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.ResultsA total of 5653 participants were included in the study. Our model did not reveal that pre-existing asthma or COPD is a statistically significant covariate for all-cause mortality but, indicated that higher eosinophil count at admission might have a protective effect (hazard ratio, HR 0.13 (95% confidence interval, CI 0.06-0.27), p = 0.0001). ROC curve analysis indicates cut-off value of 20 cells/mm(3) (81% specificity; 30.9% sensitivity).ConclusionOur results indicate that eosinophil count at hospital admission might have a potential prognostic role for all-cause mortality at 30 days of follow-up; however this was not demonstrated for pre-existing obstructive lung diseases.