Association of Admission Troponin Levels with Hospitalization and Mortality in COVID-19 Patients

Aim: This study aims to identify the association of cardiac Troponin T (cTnT) levels with hospitalization and in-hospital-mortality in patients admitted to emergency department (ED) and diagnosed with COVID-19. Material and Method: We scanned the data of adult patients presenting to the ED of a university hospital within 50 days of the first COVID-19 case admission (March 2020-May 2020) retrospectively. The study group consisted of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 by reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain reaction, had cTnT test. Demographic and laboratory data, thoracic computed tomography (CT) imaging findings, length of hospital stay were also collected. The study outcomes were patients’ hospitalization status and in-hospital mortality. Results: Out of 36 patients, 9 (25%) were discharged, 20 (55.6%) remained in-patients in the ward, and 7 (19.4%) in intensive care unit. When overall in-patients were compared to discharged patients, a significant difference was observed with regard to age [median (25%-75%)] [60 (45-69) to 28 (26-39.5) years, respectively; p=0.003)], thoracic CT score [6 (0-11) to 0 (0-0.5), respectively; p=0.005], admission cTnT values [5.99 (3.50-15.55) to 3 (3-3.28) ng/L; p=0.012]. Mortality rate among in-patients was 18.5%. In the multivariate cox regression model none of these parameters had a significant effect on survival. Conclusion: The cTnT values of COVID-19 patients are likely to be associated with hospitalization, and mortality. Thoracic CT score was higher in patients who were admitted to intensive care unit. However, neither cTnT values, nor thoracic CT score have a statistically significant effect on survival even if their distributions are different between survived and non-survived groups.

Keywords:

COVID-19, computed tomography, emergency department, hospitalization, mortality, troponin,

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