Clinical impact of pulmonary arterial hypertension on SARS-CoV-2 outcomes: U.S. pre-vaccination analysis

Our retrospective study aimed to determine how pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) influences the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 admissions by using data from the 2020 nationwide inpatient sample (NIS). Among the 1,018,915 adults who were hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020, 155 also had a PAH diagnosis. After adjusting for all baseline demographics and co-morbidities through multivariate analysis, we found that in patients admitted with a principal diagnosis of COVID-19, PAH was not associated with an increased risk of mortality compared to those without PAH. (adjusted OR 0.58 [95% CI 0.2-1.6] p=0.3). In addition, patients with both COVID-19 and PAH showed no statistically significant difference in the odds of requiring mechanical ventilation (adjusted OR 1.1 [95% CI 0.5-2.6] p=0.9), vasopressor needs (adjusted OR 0.4 [95% CI 0.1-3.5] p=0.4), acute kidney injury necessitating renal replacement therapy(adjusted OR 0.7 [95% CI 0.3-1.7] p=0.5), mean length of stay (LOS) (11.1 vs. 7.5 days), adjusted difference 3.1 [95% CI -3.8- 10.1] p=0.37) or mean total hospitalization charges ($195,815 vs $79,082, adjusted difference 107,146 [95% CI -93,939 – 308,232] p=0.29). Further studies are needed to investigate this subpopulation during the post-vaccination era to observe the effects of outcomes in these patients.