Studied patients consisted of 74 severely affected individuals with COVID-19 (mean age 65.1±17.1 years) including 44 males and 30 females. Twenty-six patients (35.1%) required tracheal intubation (64.1% non-survivors and 2.9% survivors, p<0.001). Fifty-one out of 74 patients (around 69%) had comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, cancer, renal transplantation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and osteomyelitis). There were 46 patients (around 62%) aged 65 to 90 years (76.6±7.7 years) with the PT 16.2±4.6 sec and the INR 1.52±0.74 compared to 28 patients (38%) below 65 years with the mean age of 46.6±10.3 years and the PT level of 14.6±1.8 sec (p=0.051) and the INR 1.26±0.26 (p=0.052).
Table 1 indicates the levels of coagulation factors measured at admission in studied patients. Lower level of platelet (PLT) count was detected among non-survivors compared to survivors, also patients with comorbidities had lower PLT count than patients without comorbidities (Table 1). Two (one man and a woman, 70 and 68 years old, respectively) out of three patients with PLT count ≤36 ⨯103/μL died. Around 30% (22 individuals) had PLT<150⨯103/μL.
The PT was 15.6±3.9 (12.5-35.4) sec in all patients. The PT was longer in non-survivors than survivors (Table 1). Around 42% of the patients (31 individuals) had abnormal PT and INR (>14.5 sec, and >1.2, respectively). There were 5 patients with PT 27-35 sec (INR 1.7-5.1) that all except one died. The only case with critical value of INR 5.1 was a 76 years female with PT 35.4 sec, and D-dimer 15 µg/ml required tracheal intubation who died after 6 days hospitalization. Also, a significantly higher PT was observed in patients with comorbidities compared to those without comorbidities (Table 1). Comparing patients with concomitant presence of two comorbidities with those lack of comorbidity indicated the PT level of 17.5±6.1 vs.14.4±1.64 sec (p=0.045) and INR 1.8±1.1 vs.1.22±0.21 (p=0.03). The mean level of D-dimer available from 16 severe patients with COVID-19 was 5.1±7.3 (0.1-25) µg/ml that in non-survivors was higher than survivors (Table 1). The aPTT and fibrinogen levels in all patients were 39.1±9.2 (25-68) sec and 3.37±1.80 (135-751) g/L, respectively (Table 1). The abnormal pattern of coagulation parameters (lower PLT, higher PT, aPTT, INR, and D-dimer) observed in 30 out of 39 patients (around 77%) with comorbidities who died compared to 9 non-survived patients without comorbidities.