Background

Patients with asthma are comparatively susceptible to respiratory viral infections and more likely to develop severe symptoms than people without asthma. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is necessary to adequately evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of the population with asthma in the population tested for and diagnosed as having COVID-19.

Objective

To perform a study to assess the impact of asthma on COVID-19 diagnosis, presenting symptoms, disease severity, and cytokine profiles.

Methods

This was an analysis of a prospectively collected cohort of patients suspected of having COVID-19 who presented for COVID-19 testing at a tertiary medical center in Missouri between March 2020 and September 2020. We classified and analyzed patients according to their pre-existing asthma diagnosis and subsequent COVID-19 testing results.

Results

Patients suspected of having COVID-19 (N = 435) were enrolled in this study. The proportions of patients testing positive for COVID-19 were 69.2% and 81.9% in the groups with asthma and without asthma, respectively. The frequencies of relevant symptoms were similar between the groups with asthma with positive and negative COVID-19 test results. In the population diagnosed as having COVID-19 (n = 343), asthma was not associated with several indicators of COVID-19 severity, including hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, death due to COVID-19, and in-hospital mortality after multivariate adjustment. Patients with COVID-19 with asthma exhibited significantly lower levels of plasma interleukin-8 than patients without asthma (adjusted P = .02).

Conclusion

The population with asthma is facing a challenge in preliminary COVID-19 evaluation owing to an overlap in the symptoms of COVID-19 and asthma. However, asthma does not increase the risk of COVID-19 severity if infected.

中文翻译：

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2019 年冠状病毒疑似和确诊患者的哮喘

背景

哮喘患者相对容易受到呼吸道病毒感染，并且比非哮喘患者更容易出现严重症状。在 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行期间，有必要充分评估接受检测和诊断为患有 COVID-19 的人群中哮喘人群的特征和结果。

客观的

开展一项研究，评估哮喘对 COVID-19 诊断、症状、疾病严重程度和细胞因子谱的影响。

方法

这是对前瞻性收集的疑似患有 COVID-19 的患者队列的分析，这些患者于 2020 年 3 月至 2020 年 9 月期间在密苏里州的一家三级医疗中心接受了 COVID-19 检测。我们根据患者既往存在的哮喘情况对患者进行了分类和分析诊断和随后的 COVID-19 检测结果。

结果

疑似患有 COVID-19 的患者 (N = 435) 被纳入本研究。在哮喘组和非哮喘组中，COVID-19 检测呈阳性的患者比例分别为 69.2% 和 81.9%。COVID-19 检测结果呈阳性和阴性的哮喘组之间相关症状的频率相似。在诊断为 COVID-19 的人群 (n = 343) 中，哮喘与 COVID-19 严重程度的多项指标无关，包括住院、入住重症监护病房、机械通气、因 COVID-19 导致的死亡以及-多变量调整后的医院死亡率。患有哮喘的 COVID-19 患者的血浆白细胞介素 8 水平显着低于非哮喘患者（调整后的P  = 0.02）。

结论

由于 COVID-19 和哮喘的症状重叠，哮喘人群在 COVID-19 初步评估中面临挑战。然而，如果感染哮喘，则不会增加 COVID-19 严重程度的风险。