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.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus, risk, β-thalassemia, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, Mortality, intensive care, Clinical symptoms, Hospitalization, susceptibility, COVID-19 severity, Sex, diabetes, hypertension, ICU, Atrial fibrillation, Characteristics, Patient, ICU admission, age, smoking status, Admission, Blood, association, Analysis, Male sex, observation, ICU care, participant, coronary disease, disorder, chronic respiratory disease, hyperlipidemia, positive COVID-19, single gene, prevalent, heterozygote, recruited, reduced, had no, statistically significant, were assessed, β-thalassemia,