Epidemiological, Clinical and Radiological Profile of Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 at the Epidemic Treatment Centre of the Fann Hospital, Dakar during the Third and Fourth Waves

Aims: To describe the epidemiological, clinico-biological and radiological aspects of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 infection at the Fann Epidemics Treatment Center (ETC).

Methodology: Cross-sectional study in Fann hospital, between July 2021 and March 2022. We included all patients hospitalized for COVID-19 infection on the basis of epidemiological, clinical and CT scanographic evidence associated with a positive RT-PCR or Ag RDT. The data were entered into Excel and analysed using R software. Qualitative variables were expressed as absolute and relative frequencies. Quantitative variables were described by the average accompanied by its standard deviation or the median associated with the extremes according to their distribution.

Results: A total of 248 patients were enrolled during the study period. The average age was 61.7 ±15.2 years. Of the 248 patients, 110 were women (44.4%). High blood pressure was the most frequent comorbidity and was found in 89 patients (35.89%), followed by diabetes (21.7%) and obesity (7.26%) respectively. Three quarters (76.6%) of our patients had not been vaccinated against COVID-19. Dyspnoea was the most frequently encountered clinical symptoms (77%). More than a third of patients (39%) had extra-respiratory symptoms. A total of 109 patients underwent d-dimer testing, of whom 80 (73.4%) had levels ≥ 500ng/ml. One hundred and eighty-two patients (73.4%) had undergone thoracic CT or CT angio. And among them, 71.9% had ground-glass lesions, and half (50%) had severe to critical lesions. In our study, 52 patients died, representing a case-fatality rate of 21%.

Conclusion: Our study population consisted mainly of elderly subjects, most of whom had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and had one or more comorbidities, the most representative of which were high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases. In this population, the mortality rate of COVID-19 was significant, approximately one in four patients.