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Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19

Background: β-Thalassemia is the most prevalent single gene blood disorder, while the assessment of its susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) warrants it a pressing biomedical priority. Methods: We studied 255 positive COVID-19 participants unvaccinated against severe acute respirato...

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Autores principales: Sotiriou, Sotirios, Samara, Athina A., Vamvakopoulou, Dimitra, Vamvakopoulos, Konstantinos-Odysseas, Sidiropoulos, Andreas, Vamvakopoulos, Nikolaos, Janho, Michel B., Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I., Boutlas, Styllianos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8397014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34441941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10163645
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author Sotiriou, Sotirios
Samara, Athina A.
Vamvakopoulou, Dimitra
Vamvakopoulos, Konstantinos-Odysseas
Sidiropoulos, Andreas
Vamvakopoulos, Nikolaos
Janho, Michel B.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Boutlas, Styllianos
author_facet Sotiriou, Sotirios
Samara, Athina A.
Vamvakopoulou, Dimitra
Vamvakopoulos, Konstantinos-Odysseas
Sidiropoulos, Andreas
Vamvakopoulos, Nikolaos
Janho, Michel B.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Boutlas, Styllianos
author_sort Sotiriou, Sotirios
collection PubMed
description Background: β-Thalassemia is the most prevalent single gene blood disorder, while the assessment of its susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) warrants it a pressing biomedical priority. Methods: We studied 255 positive COVID-19 participants unvaccinated against severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), consecutively recruited during the last trimester of 2020. Patient characteristics including age, sex, current smoking status, atrial fibrillation, chronic respiratory disease, coronary disease, diabetes, neoplasia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and β-thalassemia heterozygosity were assessed for COVID-19 severity, length of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality from COVID-19. Results: We assessed patient characteristics associated with clinical symptoms, ICU admission, and mortality from COVID-19. In multivariate analysis, severe-critical COVID-19 was strongly associated with male sex (p = 0.023), increased age (p < 0.001), and β-thalassemia heterozygosity (p = 0.002, OR = 2.89). Regarding the requirement for ICU care, in multivariate analysis there was a statistically significant association with hypertension (p = 0.001, OR = 5.12), while β-thalassemia heterozygosity had no effect (p = 0.508, OR = 1.33). Mortality was linked to male sex (p = 0.036, OR = 2.09), increased age (p < 0.001) and β-thalassemia heterozygosity (p = 0.010, OR = 2.79) in multivariate analysis. It is worth noting that hyperlipidemia reduced mortality from COVID-19 (p = 0.008, OR = 0.38). No statistically significant association of current smoking status with patient characteristics studied was observed. Conclusions: Our pilot observations indicate enhanced mortality of β-thalassemia heterozygotes from COVID-19.
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spelling pubmed-83970142021-08-28 Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19 Sotiriou, Sotirios Samara, Athina A. Vamvakopoulou, Dimitra Vamvakopoulos, Konstantinos-Odysseas Sidiropoulos, Andreas Vamvakopoulos, Nikolaos Janho, Michel B. Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I. Boutlas, Styllianos J Clin Med Article Background: β-Thalassemia is the most prevalent single gene blood disorder, while the assessment of its susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) warrants it a pressing biomedical priority. Methods: We studied 255 positive COVID-19 participants unvaccinated against severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), consecutively recruited during the last trimester of 2020. Patient characteristics including age, sex, current smoking status, atrial fibrillation, chronic respiratory disease, coronary disease, diabetes, neoplasia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and β-thalassemia heterozygosity were assessed for COVID-19 severity, length of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality from COVID-19. Results: We assessed patient characteristics associated with clinical symptoms, ICU admission, and mortality from COVID-19. In multivariate analysis, severe-critical COVID-19 was strongly associated with male sex (p = 0.023), increased age (p < 0.001), and β-thalassemia heterozygosity (p = 0.002, OR = 2.89). Regarding the requirement for ICU care, in multivariate analysis there was a statistically significant association with hypertension (p = 0.001, OR = 5.12), while β-thalassemia heterozygosity had no effect (p = 0.508, OR = 1.33). Mortality was linked to male sex (p = 0.036, OR = 2.09), increased age (p < 0.001) and β-thalassemia heterozygosity (p = 0.010, OR = 2.79) in multivariate analysis. It is worth noting that hyperlipidemia reduced mortality from COVID-19 (p = 0.008, OR = 0.38). No statistically significant association of current smoking status with patient characteristics studied was observed. Conclusions: Our pilot observations indicate enhanced mortality of β-thalassemia heterozygotes from COVID-19. MDPI 2021-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8397014/ /pubmed/34441941 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10163645 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sotiriou, Sotirios
Samara, Athina A.
Vamvakopoulou, Dimitra
Vamvakopoulos, Konstantinos-Odysseas
Sidiropoulos, Andreas
Vamvakopoulos, Nikolaos
Janho, Michel B.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Boutlas, Styllianos
Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title_full Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title_fullStr Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title_short Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19
title_sort susceptibility of β-thalassemia heterozygotes to covid-19
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8397014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34441941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10163645
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