Evolutionary particulars of COVID-19 in elderly patients

Background: The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus affects a large number of people worldwide, and the elderly are particularly affected because of their vulnerability. Thus, the elderly patients and those with comorbidities have an increased risk of developing a severe disease and show an increased mortality rate. Although they may show mild symptoms of illness and low-grade fever in the early days, they may worsen clinically rapidly, requiring ongoing monitoring.

Material and methods: The prospective study was performed on a group of 96 patients (mean age 61.41 ± 3.42 years), with a predominance of men, hospitalized in the Holy Trinity Hospital of Chisinau who met the clinical case definition and were laboratory case-confirmed with COVID-19. Patients were clinically and paraclinically investigated according to the WHO Provisional National Clinical Protocol for COVID-19 infection reporting. The data were statistically processed by the Statistics 10 program.

Results: Of the 96 patients with COVID-19, 85 (88.54%) reported at least one had a comorbidity. The prevalence of comorbidities was the following: chronic coronary syndromes (40.1%), hypertension (39.7%), diabetes (16.04%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (17.3%), malignancy (13.04%), cerebrovascular disease (10.6%), chronic kidney disease (4.3%) and viral hepatitis B (1.8%). Severe cases of the disease were revealed – 58, medium severity – 38 cases. All critical cases resulting in death (7.29%) showed comorbidities with respiratory symptoms, as well as with the onset of acute respiratory failure.

Conclusions: The elderly, male gender and the presence of comorbidities in patients with COVID-19 determine the severe course of the disease and an increased mortality rate.