Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with asthma in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective

Although it is reported that patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease who have comorbidities are at higher risk to suffer adverse clinical outcomes, there are inadequate evidence to clarify the association between COVID-19 and asthma. On this ground, this study aims to systematically analyze the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with asthma.

Methods

In this single-center, retrospective and observational cohort study, 21 COVID-19 patients with asthma and 100 non-asthma COVID-19 patients were statistically matched by propensity score based on age, sex and comorbidities. Meanwhile, a collection and comparison concerning demographic indicators, clinical and laboratory examinations, treatments and outcomes were conducted between two groups to specify their differences.

Results

Statistically, the COVID-19 patients with asthma had a higher proportion of ICU admission (14.3% [3/21] vs. 2.1% [2/96] p = 0.040) than those who do not have. On top this, a higher level of inflammatory responses, such as interleukin 6, interleukin 8, procalcitonin, leukocytes, neutrophils and CD4⁺ T cells was presented in asthma patients. Moreover, the increase of organ damage indices like D-dimer, lactate dehydrogenase and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I, were more pronounced in COVID-19 patients with asthma.

Conclusions

Exacerbated inflammatory responses and multiple organ damages were triggered in COVID-19 patients with asthma, which highlights more intensive surveillance and supportive treatment.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• asthma
• D-dimer
• procalcitonin

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge all patients and their families involved in the study and all health-care workers who are fighting against COVID-19 pneumonia.

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request (Huilan Zhang, Email: [email protected]).

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by SARS-CoV-2 Pneumonia Emergency Technology Public Relations Project of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology under Grant 2020kfyXGYJ043 and National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2016YFC1304403.