Venous Thromboembolism in COVID-19 Patients and Prediction Model: A Multicenter Cohort Study

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-827741/v1

Download PDF

Research Article

Venous Thromboembolism in COVID-19 Patients and Prediction Model: A Multicenter Cohort Study

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-827741/v1

This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License

You are reading this latest preprint version

Background

Patients with COVID-19 infection are commonly reported to have an increased risk of venous thrombosis. The choice of anti-thrombotic agents and doses in COVID-19 patients are currently being studied in randomized controlled trials and retrospective studies. There exists a need for individualized risk stratification of venous thromboembolism (VTE) to assist clinicians in decision-making on anticoagulation. We sought to identify the risk factors of VTE in COVID-19 patients, which could help physicians in prevention, early identification and management of VTE in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and improve clinical outcomes in these patients.

Methods

This is a multicenter, retrospective database of four main health systems in southeast Michigan, United States. We compiled comprehensive data for adult COVID-19 patients who were admitted between 1st March 2020 and 31st December 2020. Four models including random forest, multiple logistic regression, multiple linear regression, and decision trees were built on the primary outcome of in-hospital acute deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and tested for performance. The study also reported hospital length of stay (LOS) and intensive care unit (ICU) LOS in the VTE and the non-VTE patients. Four models were assessed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and confusion matrix.

Results

The cohort included 3531 admissions, 3526 had discharge diagnosis, and 6.68% patients developed acute VTE (N=236). VTE group had a longer hospital and ICU LOS than non-VTE group (hospital LOS 12.2 days vs 8.8 days, p<0.001; ICU LOS 3.8 days vs 1.9 days, p<0.001). 9.8% patients in VTE group required more advanced oxygen support, compared to 2.7% patients in non-VTE group (p<0.001). Among all four models, the random forest model had the best performance. The model suggested that blood pressure, electrolytes, renal function, hepatic enzymes and inflammatory markers were predictors of in-hospital VTE in COVID-19 patients.

Conclusions and Relevance

Patients with COVID-19 have increased risk for VTE, and patients who developed VTE had a prolonged hospital and ICU stay. This random forest prediction model for VTE in COVID-19 patients identifies predictors which could aid physicians in making clinical judgment on empirical dosages of anticoagulation.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been causing COVID-19 illness globally since December 2019, with more than 310 million people infected and more than five million deaths reported as of 1^st Jan, 2022[1]. The common manifestations of COVID-19 include fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, fatigue, and diarrhea. Primarily, COVID-19 infection results in respiratory complications. However, it is evident that COVID-19 infection may be associated with a hyper-coagulable state, which leads to microvascular and macrovascular arterial and venous thromboembolism (VTE) [2, 3].

The incidences of VTE complications In COVID-19 patients ranged from 1.7%-16.5% in thirty-five observational studies reported from around the world (total N=9249)[4]. Researchers postulated that a severely activated inflammatory response to COVID-19 infection causes thrombo-inflammation; through mechanisms such as cytokine storm, complement activation, and endotheliosis[5]. In addition, certain studies reported findings of microthrombi in autopsies of COVID-19 patients[6]. Recent retrospective studies proposed several risk factors associated with higher mortality and higher severity of COVID-19, including inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), D-dimer, ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)[7-9]. Moreover, many studies also showed VTE in COVID-19 is associated with severity of infection and mortality[9]. Hence it is critical for physicians to identify the risk factors for the prevention and early management of VTE.

Most of the prediction models built for COVID-19 patients predict prognosis[10-12], with only a few models predicting VTE.[13-15] These models were built with a smaller sample size, a limited selection of variables, and primarily involved modification and validation of pre-COVID-19 VTE prediction models. With the growing awareness of VTE risk in COVID-19, patients are now routinely placed on prophylactic dose anticoagulants per National Institute Health recommendation, except in cases of high bleeding risk, severe thrombocytopenia, or suspected hemorrhage necessitating caution in these selected patients [6, 16, 17]. This highlights the need for a prediction model tailored for COVID-19 patients, with comprehensive variable selection and performance evaluation, which can support the use of anticoagulation in this crucial patient population. Therefore, we analyzed the independent predictors of VTE using different machine learning methods in a cohort of 3531 hospitalized COVID-19 patients from southeastern Michigan.

In this cross-sectional observational study, we report and analyze the data from Southeastern Michigan COVID-19 Consortium Registry Database (SMCRD). SMCRD is a multi-institutional registry database of four main health systems in southeast Michigan, United States, including Henry Ford Health System, Beaumont Health System, Trinity Health System, and Wayne State University. It is built using REDCap and is housed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The SMCRD registry contains de-identified data of adult patients who were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests. Each institution has been independently collecting data, both retrospectively and concurrently, since March 1, 2020, and is ongoing. Our study was approved by Trinity and Henry Ford health systems institutional review boards.

Procedures

We compiled data for adult patients (age 18 years or older) that included baseline demographics, laboratory results, and in-hospital events, including all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients from March 1, 2020, to the end of December 2020. All patients (with and without venous thromboembolic events) were included (Figure 1). For each patient, a total of 85 variables (Supplementary Table 1) from six categories were extracted included baseline demographics, presenting vital signs, past medical history (abstracted using free-text variables, International Classification of Diseases–Tenth Revision (ICD-10) and Current Procedural Terminology codes), social history, admission reasons, pre-admission medications, hospital course, laboratory values, electrocardiogram, and imaging studies (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computerized tomography scan, ultrasounds). . Variables in our study included: personal information (age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), social history), hospital summary (hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) admission and LOS, use of oxygen devices, intubation status), laboratory values (white blood cell (WBC) counts, D-dimer, ferritin, LDH, lactate, C-reactive protein (CRP), and so on), past medical history, vital signs, and in-hospital prophylactic and therapeutic anticoagulation therapy. Since COVID-19 can cause VTE in patients following discharge, we followed patients after their initial hospital discharge for readmission and development of VTE. Accordingly, patients with one-time admit and readmission, with or without thromboembolism events, were considered when building prediction models.

Outcomes

The primary outcome was in-hospital venous thromboembolism events, including acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) identified by ICD-10 codes (Supplementary Table 2), venous doppler ultrasounds, ventilation-perfusion scan, and computed tomography angiography (CTA) of the chest. In-hospital outcomes (Table 1) included mortality, hospital and ICU LOS.

Statistical analysis

Initial data cleaning and analysis

Laboratory values at the time of admission, peak, and minimum values were collected. For venous thromboembolism, approximately five percent of patients had CTA chest images available, and 1% of patients had CTA-confirmed PE and vessel image-confirmed DVT; limited diagnostic testing was likely due to the COVID-19 hospitals’ policy of limiting exposure to the virus in the first wave of the pandemic. Acute VTE patients were identified using ICD-10 (Supplementary Table 2). Of the 3531 patients, 161 patients had PE, 121 had DVT. 3127 patients were anticoagulated with either enoxaparin or heparin. Enoxaparin dosage higher than 40mg subcutaneous twice daily was considered as therapeutic dose (N=340), whereas less than 40mg subcutaneous twice daily was defined as prophylactic dose (N=1920). Intravenous heparin was included in therapeutic dose (N=182) and subcutaneous heparin was considered as prophylactic dose (N= 1315). In total, 1018 patients received therapeutic dose and 2976 patients received prophylactic dose anticoagulation.

We categorized race and ethnicity, BMI, oxygen devices, smoking, alcohol and marijuana history, and past medical history into dichotomous variables, while laboratory test values were retained as continuous variables. Initial descriptive analysis for continuous variables was described as mean with standard deviation or median with interquartile range. Categorical variables were described as frequency distributions. To compare the groups, the Chi-square test was used for categorical variables, and the t-test was used for continuous variables. Univariate analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to identify potential risk factors for venous thrombosis (Supplementary Table 3 and Supplementary Figure 1). All data were analyzed using SAS v9.4 or R 3.6.2, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. Prediction models were built using JMP Pro 14.2.0 (Supplementary Table 5).

Data Cleaning

As part of exploratory data analysis, the distribution of all the variables was plotted. Most laboratory values were either left or right skewed. Multiple variables could be highly correlated with each other and potentially result in interactions in the process of model building. For example, both neutrophil and lymphocyte counts comprise the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio. Likewise, BUN and creatinine comprise BUN-creatinine ratio which is a parameter that could indicate different types of acute kidney injury; for example, BUN-creatinine ratio >20 suggests pre-renal acute kidney injury. Therefore, Spearman’s rho was performed. Twenty-three groups of variables that were highly positively or negatively correlated based on Spearman’s coefficient more than ±0.7 (Supplementary Table 4A) were aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT), creatinine and BUN, maximum (max) B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and initial BNP, max CRP and initial CRP, max ferritin and initial ferritin, max D-dimer and initial D-dimer, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophils, max neutrophils and minimum lymphocyte, history of venous thromboembolism and DVT and PE, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, inpatient therapeutic anticoagulation and inpatient prophylactic anticoagulation and so on. Therefore, we downsized the variables; for example, neutrophil and lymphocyte alone were analyzed in the model building rather than neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio. Likewise, BUN and creatinine alone were included rather than the BUN-creatinine ratio; the history of VTE was used rather than its components (DVT and PE). When building models, we used lab values on admission rather than the peak or lowest values as we aimed to build a prediction model which can assist physicians in predicting VTE in COVID-19 patients on admission based on the available data. The principal component analysis was performed to reduce the dimensions used to predict VTE events. Patients without missing data (N=1443) from the cohort were included in the PCA. A total of 32 continuous variables were included in the PCA. In the scree plot, the 1st component explains only about 16% variations of the data, and only 24.6% of the variations were explained by the first two components (Supplementary Table 3 and Supplementary Figure 1). Therefore, the PCA was deemed not helpful in reducing the dimensions in our analysis. For both continuous and categorical variables, we further performed univariate analysis using the R package (Supplementary Table 5).

Model building

The cohort was randomly split into the training set and test set (70:30) multiple times. We compared four models in their predictive accuracy for detecting thromboembolic events and mortality:

Multiple linear regression (MLR)
Multiple logistic regression (LR)
Decision tree
Random forest

A total of 3531 admissions were identified, of which 3416 were first admissions, and 115 were readmissions; of the 115 readmitted patients, 109 were readmitted once (second admission), and six were readmitted twice (third admission). Overall, there were 236 patients (6.68%) with VTE events and 2907 patients with no VTE events in the dataset. In general, the VTE group had a longer LOS in hospital and ICU than the non-VTE group (hospital LOS 12.2 days vs. 8.8 days, p<0.001; ICU LOS 3.8 days vs. 1.9 days, p<0.001). In addition, 9.8% of patients in the VTE group required advanced oxygen support, compared to 2.7% of patients in the non-VTE group (p<0.001). Laboratory values such as WBC, CRP, D-dimer, and platelet count were significantly different between VTE and non-VTE groups (p<0.001). Baseline demographic characteristics of patients were summarized in Table 1. The mean age for VTE and non-VTE patients was 68±16.7 years and 66.2±16.4 years (p=0.125). Morbid obesity was common in both groups (VTE vs. non-VTE: 47.6% vs. 50.2%, p=0.329). The in-hospital all-cause mortality for VTE patients was 22.2%, whereas non-VTE patients was 14.8% (Odds ratio (OR): 1.65, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22, 2.22, p-value=0.001). We also found that the VTE group had a longer hospital LOS, ICU LOS, and days on ventilator than the non-VTE group. The univariate analysis of predictors of VTE upon admission were shown in Supplementary Table 3. For the variables like IL-6 (pg/mL), CRP (mg/dL), D- dimer (ng/mL), WBC (K/uL), BUN (mg/dL) had an OR of 1.00 to 1.2 and were significant, however this could not be negligible as most of the variables were measured on a small scale. Moreover, these laboratory variables are of great interest in COVID-19 patients, because COVID-19 infection causes cytokine storms leading to elevated inflammatory markers, such as ferritin, LDH, CRP, and IL-6. These inflammatory responses result in endotheliitis and hypercoagulopathy that predispose the patients to develop VTE.

Prediction model for VTE

The most significant variables of each model were shown in Table 2. For MLR and LR, the significant variables were selected based on the p-value of <0.05; for decision tree and random forest, they were based on Gini Index (G^2). MLR was eliminated as it is not ideal for categorical variables. The decision tree has worse accuracy than a random forest but provides interpretability. Our decision tree was firstly split by the root node as therapeutic anticoagulation as inpatient, followed by leaf nodes of BUN (<20, 20), hospital LOS (<20, 20), Age (<91, 91), race (white, non-white), D-dimer (4740 ng/mL, <4740 ng/mL), history of VTE, and D-dimer (2170 ng/mL, <2170 ng/mL) (Supplementary Figure 1). Whereas random forests are an ensemble of decision trees that solve the overfitting of the decision tree as the predictions are based on an average of all trees. On the other hand, loss of interpretability is one of the limitations of the random forests. Both decision trees and random forests handle continuous and categorical variables that best analyze our cohort. Across all models, D-dimer was the most significant variable for MLR, LR, and decision tree models. Other common variables across the models include VTE history, inpatient therapeutic anticoagulation, requirement for oxygen devices such as high flow nasal cannula, non-rebreather mask, and mechanical ventilation, heart rate, BUN and so on. The four models were compared, as shown in Table 3, to analyze predictive ability in diagnosing COVID-19 associated VTE. Random forest performed the best among all in terms of R-square, misclassification rate, and ROC curve.

Performance of the model

Random forest model consisted of 22 variables (significance in order): D-dimer, inpatient therapeutic anticoagulation therapy, platelet count, BUN, age, WBC, systolic blood pressure, lymphocytes, ALT, potassium, BNP, CRP, creatinine, LDH, neutrophils, heart rate, total bilirubin, AST, diastolic blood pressure, prior history of VTE, ferritin, and oxygen saturation on admission. Electrolytes, renal function, blood pressures, hepatic enzymes, and inflammatory markers were indicators of VTE risks. The evaluation of the performance and confusion matrix of the four models in training and the validation process was shown in Table 3. The R-square of the random forest model for the training and validation set was 58.87% and 18.76% (p <0.0001); the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.83 (Figure 2). We set a cutoff of 0.1 for the generation of sensitivity and specificity. The random forest model had a sensitivity of 0.68 and a specificity of 0.82. In our cohort, the classification was skewed; therefore, the default threshold (0.5) cannot represent an optimal interpretation of the predicted probabilities. Effectively, our goal was to provide a robust model for clinicians to identify COVID-19 patients at risk for VTE early in the hospital course and assist in deciding between therapeutic versus prophylactic anticoagulation management. In the validation set, the model showed that it was good at predicting the absence of a venous event more than the presence of a venous event. The negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) of the model for the validation set were 0.97 and 0.26. Due to the low prevalence of VTE in the population, the F1 score of the model was calculated as 0.35.

This retrospective study presented a prediction model for VTE in COVID-19 patients and the demographics, clinical parameters, and incidence rate of VTE in COVID inpatients. The incidence rate of VTE could have been underreported due to limited radiological testing to reduce staff exposure to COVID-19 infection in the first wave[18]. Our study reported an incidence rate of 6.68%; similar to other studies (Table 4B). We found that patients who developed new-onset VTE had more extended hospital LOS (12.2 days vs. 8.8 days, p <0.001) and ICU LOS (3.8 days vs. 1.9 days, p<0.001) compared to COVID-19 patients, who did not have VTE. This is a robust prediction model for VTE in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 using a large multicenter database (N=3531). We included 85 variables from a broad spectrum of parameters, demographics, vitals, comorbidities, hospital course (oxygen requirement, ICU admission, hospital and ICU LOS). Electrolytes, renal function, blood pressures, hepatic enzymes, and inflammatory markers were indicators of VTE risks; however, further studies on whether a cutoff value could be applied to inflammatory markers for good sensitivity and specificity for VTE in COVID-19 infection would be beneficial. Physicians can assess patients’ presenting signs, renal and hepatic functions and potentially identify patients at high risk of VTE and work on the reversible risk factors to reduce patients’ risks of developing VTE during hospitalization. It is worth mentioning that we used presenting data which was the initial data of patients admitted to the hospital. Models such as multiple logistic regression models that do not handle missing data have smaller sample sizes that can potentially affect performance. Our MLR model has an R-Square of 0.2569, p <0.0001. The R^2 value of MLR and LR is low, which is consistent with the fact that we did not include laboratory values that are missing and did not impute those values. The decision tree has a lower R^2 value (0.19 in training and 0.11 in the testing set). However, R^2 value is most likely not appropriate for a tree-based model. Nevertheless, the random forest model has a low misclassification rate (6.87% in the training set, 8.4% in the testing set). Overall, we have low R^2 values. The decision tree may have worse accuracy than a random forest, but the tree structure is easy to understand and interpret. By looking at the splitting nodes, key factors can be identified, and predictions can be made. On the other hand, random forests are an ensemble of decision trees, and the predictions are based on an average of all trees, which is a "black box" that can't be directly described. One of the possibilities is that our study cohort has an inherently higher amount of unexplainable variability; this could be better addressed in future prospective studies.

Of 3532 records, only 1282 patients were included in the MLR model due to the missing values in the other patients. Similarly, in the LR, only 1282 records were used, which was less than 50% of the records. Although IL-6, LDH, procalcitonin, ferritin, and fibrinogen were excluded in the model building due to significant numbers of missing values, we found no significant difference in these values between non-VTE and VTE groups.

Our model can provide clinical risk stratification of VTE in COVID-19 patients and help individualize thromboprophylaxis, which supports the current consensus of customized and risk-adapted management for thromboprophylaxis in international guidelines[19]. Four papers studied VTE in COVID-19 patients using existing prediction models (Table 4). Kampouri et al. combined Wells score and D-dimer value to predict VTE with a PPV of 18.2%, an NPV 98.5%, and accuracy of 0.905 [20]. A Dutch study reported a 41.7% incidence rate of VTE in COVID-19 patients and built a linear regression model consisting of D-dimer >9 μg/ml and CRP >280 mg/ml, and the authors report a predicted probability of 92%[21]. Another study by Taplin et al. modified Caprini score using a cutoff value of 12, which is also based on the D-dimer score and showed a sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 84% in predicting VTE[22]. Unlike our study, these studies had a much smaller sample size and number of events and included risk factors not analyzed in the original prediction model studies. Notably, the performance of the model depends on the event prevalence. Among all studies, the Dutch study had the highest predictive probability in the critically ill population due to a higher incidence of VTE. The prevalence of PE was higher across studies with higher mean D-dimer values (prevalence ratio 1.3 per 1000 ng/mL increase; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.50, p=0.002) and higher percentage of ICU patients (1.02 per 1% increase; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.03, p<0.001). In addition, prevalence of DVT was higher across studies with higher mean D-dimer values (1.04 per 1000 ng/mL increase; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.07, p=0.022).

After systemic review, we included six other studies that had reported incidence rate of VTE in COVID-19 patients without prediction models that were not discussed in the original manuscript (Table 4B). Our study showed an incidence rate of 6.68% of VTE in COVID-19 patients which is consistent with three of the studies, whereas Freund et al. reported a rate of 15% and two studies showed a lower incidence rate of 2-3%. Critically ill COVID-19 patients who were admitted to ICU had a higher incidence rate of VTE. Among which, only two studies identified risk factors for COVID-19 patients using the MLR model, including advanced age, increased creatinine level, history of cardiovascular disease, ICU admission, elevated D-dimer, male gender, heart rate, clinical signs of DVT, and recent immobilization. Unlike other studies, we did not impute missing values to better building a model that predict VTE individually.

Our study analyzed D-dimer, lactate and inflammatory markers including CRP, ferritin, and LDH that are of great interest in clinical settings and have been routinely ordered for COVID-19 patients. The utilization of laboratory values varies, many physicians trend these markers to predict the trajectory of COVID-19 patients. However, limited studies included them for VTE analysis. Our result showed no significant difference in presenting CRP, IL-6, and LDH level among VTE and non-VTE groups (Table 1), yet the maximum value of D-dimer, CRP and LDH were significantly higher in VTE-groups. This may suggest that D-dimer, CRP and LDH could be utilized clinically for monitoring. However, further studies on the threshold, sensitivity and specificity of certain markers are needed.

A meta-analysis of 47 studies showed the prevalence of PE was higher across studies with higher mean D-dimer values (prevalence ratio 1.3 per 1000 ng/mL increase; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.50, p=0.002) and higher percentage of ICU patients (1.02 per 1% increase; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.03, p<0.001). Current guideline by American Society of Hematology (ASH) suggests using prophylactic-intensity over intermediate-intensity anticoagulation for patients with COVID-19 related critical illness who do not have suspected or confirmed VTE. Furthermore, ASH suggests that an individualized assessment of the patient’s risk of thrombosis and bleeding is important when deciding on anticoagulation intensity. Our study provides physicians a model that could aid in risk stratification, as VTE has been well-known to be a common COVID-19 complication.

We observed that 11.5% of patients (N=302) who did not have VTE were given a therapeutic dosage of AC, whereas 74.3% of patients (N=162) who had VTE were placed on only prophylactic AC. It described an unmet need for risk stratification for COVID-19 patients. Vaughn et al. reported 16.2% of patients who had suspected VTE were given therapeutic AC and increased treatment-dose anticoagulation for VTE prophylaxis[23]. The INSPIRATION trial did not show the difference in routine empirical use of intermediate-dose prophylactic AC in ICU patients in the primary composite outcome including acute VTE, arterial thrombosis, the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and all-cause mortality (absolute risk difference, 1.5% [95% CI: −6.6, 9.8]; OR: 1.06 [95% CI: 0.76, 1.48]; P = 0.70)[16]. The Anti-Thrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Complications of COVID-19 (ATTACK) randomized multicenter adaptive design trials has shown therapeutic anticoagulation to be beneficial in moderately severe patients, whereas it was futile with ICU patients requiring organ failure support[24]. However, it is unclear why after diagnosis of VTE, many patients only received prophylactic anticoagulants.

Our study has both strengths and limitations. The strengths include the large sample size, multi-institute-based data, and availability of broad outcomes events data. Moreover, our VTE prediction model in COVID-19 patients can most benefit clinical practice to aid clinical management in settings where definitive diagnosis of VTE is hard to obtain, for example, for critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation who are unable to undergo CTA chest study. Since this is retrospective study utilizing a large database from SMCRD, we were unable to obtain the timing of diagnosis of acute VTE in our cohort, which would have allowed exploration of the temporal relationship between VTE and potential risk factors highlighting an important limitation of our study. Furthermore, although our models showed good predictive capacity, the lower incidence of VTE in the population study created significant hurdles. The random forest model’s PPV is 26%, NPV is 97%, and the F1 score is 0.36. Future studies on a composite outcome including both venous and arterial events could provide a bigger population. Also, the random forest model is not a panelized method and has the risk of overfitting. Lastly, our model needs to be validated externally.

VTE is one of the most common complications in COVID-19 patients[25-28]. Prolonged hospital and ICU stay was noted in patients who developed VTE. This random forest prediction model for VTE in COVID-19 patients is based on a broad spectrum of parameters on initial presentation and comorbidities. Factors like D-dimer, LDH, platelet count, age, WBC, AST, ALT, BUN and creatinine, heart rate on presentation, and prior history of VTE can predict in-hospital VTE events which could aid physicians in making a clinical judgment on empirical dosage of anticoagulation.

ALT - Alanine transaminase

AST - Aspartate aminotransferase

ATTACK - Anti-Thrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Complications of COVID-19

BMI - Body mass index

BNP - B-type natriuretic peptide

BUN - Blood urea nitrogen

CI - Confidence interval

CRP - C-reactive protein

CTA - Computed tomography angiography

DVT – Deep vein thrombosis

G^2 - Gini Index

ICD-10 - International Classification of Diseases–Tenth Revision

ICU - Intensive care unit

IL-6 - Interleukin-6

LDH - lactate dehydrogenase

LOS – Length of stay

LR - Logistic regression

Max - Maximum

Min - Minimum

MLR - Multiple linear regression

NPV - Negative predictive value

OR - Odds ratio

PCA - Principal component analysis

PE - Pulmonary embolism

PPV - Positive predictive value

ROC - Receiver operating characteristic

SARS-CoV-2 - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

SMCRD - Southeastern Michigan COVID-19 Consortium Registry Database

SOFA - Sequential Organ Failure Assessment

VTE - Venous thromboembolism

WBC - White blood cell

Ethics approval and consent to participate: IRB approval obtained at both Trinity Health System and Henry Ford Health System

Consent for publication: Yes

Availability of data and material: No

Competing interests: None

Funding: None

Authors' contributions: YL and QJ: study conception, study design, data analysis and manuscript writing; DG, PM, CHL and VB: Data analysis; PL, DRA, LP: Data analysis and manuscript writing; GK, ARH, KP: study conception, and manuscript writing; AAS and BGN: study design, and manuscript writing. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Acknowledgements: Not Applicable

Coronavirus Resource Center [https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region]
Lodigiani C, Iapichino G, Carenzo L, Cecconi M, Ferrazzi P, Sebastian T, Kucher N, Studt JD, Sacco C, Bertuzzi A et al: Venous and arterial thromboembolic complications in COVID-19 patients admitted to an academic hospital in Milan, Italy. Thromb Res 2020, 191:9-14.
Levi M, Thachil J, Iba T, Levy JH: Coagulation abnormalities and thrombosis in patients with COVID-19. Lancet Haematol 2020, 7(6):e438-e440.
Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA: Incidence of venous and arterial thromboembolic complications in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Thrombosis research 2020, 196:27-30.
Paranjpe I, Fuster V, Lala A, Russak AJ, Glicksberg BS, Levin MA, Charney AW, Narula J, Fayad ZA, Bagiella E et al: Association of Treatment Dose Anticoagulation With In-Hospital Survival Among Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2020, 76(1):122-124.
Autopsy Findings and Venous Thromboembolism in Patients With COVID-19. Annals of Internal Medicine 2020, 173(4):268-277.
Krishnamoorthy G, Arsene C, Jena N, Mogulla SM, Coakley R, Khine J, Khosrodad N, Klein A, Sule AA: Racial disparities in COVID-19 hospitalizations do not lead to disparities in outcomes. Public Health 2021, 190:93-98.
Wiersinga WJ, Rhodes A, Cheng AC, Peacock SJ, Prescott HC: Pathophysiology, Transmission, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Review. JAMA 2020, 324(8):782-793.
Ackermann M, Verleden SE, Kuehnel M, Haverich A, Welte T, Laenger F, Vanstapel A, Werlein C, Stark H, Tzankov A et al: Pulmonary Vascular Endothelialitis, Thrombosis, and Angiogenesis in Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine 2020, 383(2):120-128.
Li A, Kuderer NM, Hsu C-Y, Shyr Y, Warner JL, Shah DP, Kumar V, Shah S, Kulkarni AA, Fu J et al: The CoVID-TE risk assessment model for venous thromboembolism in hospitalized patients with cancer and COVID-19. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2021, 19(10):2522-2532.
Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, Fan G, Liu Y, Liu Z, Xiang J, Wang Y, Song B, Gu X et al: Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet 2020, 395(10229):1054-1062.
Yan L, Zhang H-T, Goncalves J, Xiao Y, Wang M, Guo Y, Sun C, Tang X, Jin L, Zhang M et al: A machine learning-based model for survival prediction in patients with severe COVID-19 infection. medRxiv 2020:2020.2002.2027.20028027.
Wynants L, Van Calster B, Collins GS, Riley RD, Heinze G, Schuit E, Bonten MMJ, Dahly DL, Damen JA, Debray TPA et al: Prediction models for diagnosis and prognosis of covid-19: systematic review and critical appraisal. BMJ 2020, 369:m1328.
Hu H, Yao N, Qiu Y: Comparing Rapid Scoring Systems in Mortality Prediction of Critically Ill Patients With Novel Coronavirus Disease. Acad Emerg Med 2020, 27(6):461-468.
Vaid A, Somani S, Russak AJ, De Freitas JK, Chaudhry FF, Paranjpe I, Johnson KW, Lee SJ, Miotto R, Zhao S et al: Machine Learning to Predict Mortality and Critical Events in COVID-19 Positive New York City Patients. medRxiv 2020:2020.2004.2026.20073411.
Investigators I: Effect of Intermediate-Dose vs Standard-Dose Prophylactic Anticoagulation on Thrombotic Events, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Treatment, or Mortality Among Patients With COVID-19 Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit: The INSPIRATION Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021, 325(16):1620-1630.
Moores LK, Tritschler T, Brosnahan S, Carrier M, Collen JF, Doerschug K, Holley AB, Jimenez D, Le Gal G, Rali P et al: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of VTE in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019: CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report. CHEST 2020, 158(3):1143-1163.
Iftimie S, López-Azcona AF, Vallverdú I, Hernández-Flix S, de Febrer G, Parra S, Hernández-Aguilera A, Riu F, Joven J, Andreychuk N et al: First and second waves of coronavirus disease-19: A comparative study in hospitalized patients in Reus, Spain. PLOS ONE 2021, 16(3):e0248029.
Sabaka P, Koščálová A, Straka I, Hodosy J, Lipták R, Kmotorková B, Kachlíková M, Kušnírová A: Role of interleukin 6 as a predictive factor for a severe course of Covid-19: retrospective data analysis of patients from a long-term care facility during Covid-19 outbreak. BMC Infectious Diseases 2021, 21(1):308.
Kampouri E, Filippidis P, Viala B, Méan M, Pantet O, Desgranges F, Tschopp J, Regina J, Karachalias E, Bianchi C et al: Predicting Venous Thromboembolic Events in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Requiring Hospitalization: an Observational Retrospective Study by the COVIDIC Initiative in a Swiss University Hospital. Biomed Res Int 2020, 2020:9126148.
Dujardin RWG, Hilderink BN, Haksteen WE, Middeldorp S, Vlaar APJ, Thachil J, Müller MCA, Juffermans NP: Biomarkers for the prediction of venous thromboembolism in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Thromb Res 2020, 196:308-312.
Tsaplin S, Schastlivtsev I, Zhuravlev S, Barinov V, Lobastov K, Caprini JA: The original and modified Caprini score equally predicts venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients. Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders.
Vaughn VM, Yost M, Abshire C, Flanders SA, Paje D, Grant P, Kaatz S, Kim T, Barnes GD: Trends in Venous Thromboembolism Anticoagulation in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19. JAMA Network Open 2021, 4(6):e2111788-e2111788.
Talasaz AH, Sadeghipour P, Kakavand H, Aghakouchakzadeh M, Kordzadeh-Kermani E, Van Tassell BW, Gheymati A, Ariannejad H, Hosseini SH, Jamalkhani S et al: Antithrombotic Therapy in COVID-19: Systematic Summary of Ongoing or Completed Randomized Trials. medRxiv 2021:2021.2001.2004.21249227.
Klok FA, Kruip M, van der Meer NJM, Arbous MS, Gommers D, Kant KM, Kaptein FHJ, van Paassen J, Stals MAM, Huisman MV et al: Incidence of thrombotic complications in critically ill ICU patients with COVID-19. Thromb Res 2020, 191:145-147.
Klok FA, Kruip M, van der Meer NJM, Arbous MS, Gommers D, Kant KM, Kaptein FHJ, van Paassen J, Stals MAM, Huisman MV et al: Confirmation of the high cumulative incidence of thrombotic complications in critically ill ICU patients with COVID-19: An updated analysis. Thromb Res 2020, 191:148-150.
Llitjos JF, Leclerc M, Chochois C, Monsallier JM, Ramakers M, Auvray M, Merouani K: High incidence of venous thromboembolic events in anticoagulated severe COVID-19 patients. J Thromb Haemost 2020, 18(7):1743-1746.
Therapeutic Anticoagulation with Heparin in Noncritically Ill Patients with Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine 2021, 385(9):790-802.

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of COVID-19 patients with and without acute venous thromboembolism

	Variable		No VTE	Acute VTE		p value
	Gender	Male	1447 (49.8)	118 (50.0)		1
		Female	1460 (50.2)	118 (50.0)
	Race	American Indian or Alaskan Native	6 (0.2)	0 (0.0)		0.119
		Asian or Pacific Islander	52 (1.8)	0 (0.0)
		Black	995 (34.2)	93 (39.4)
		White	1645 (56.6)	131 (55.5)
		Hispanic	50 (1.7)	1 (0.4)
		Others	86 (3.0)	4 (1.7)
		Unknown	72 (2.5)	7 (3.0)
	Age	Mean (SD)	66.2 (16.4)	68.0 (16.7)		0.125
	Body mass index (kg/m²)	<18.5	52 (1.9)	7 (3.3)		0.329
		18.5-24.9	487 (17.7)	44 (20.8)
		25-29	828 (30.2)	60 (28.3)
		>30	1378 (50.2)	101 (47.6)
	Readmission		2850 (98.0)	221 (93.6)		<0.001
	Hospital LOS (days)	Mean (SD)	8.8 (6.4)	12.2 (9.2)		<0.001
	Total ICU (days)	Mean (SD)	1.9 (5.0)	3.8 (8.1)		<0.001
	Mechanical ventilation (days)	Mean (SD)	1.1 (3.9)	2.4 (6.9)		0.005
	CPR		2487 (85.6)	199 (84.3)		0.675
	O2 device	None	2241 (77.4)	153 (64.8)		<0.001
		Nasal Cannula/Non-rebreather Mask	574 (19.8)	60 (25.4)
		Ventilator	43 (1.5)	11 (4.7)
		Other	29 (1.0)	5 (2.1)
		High Flow Nasal Cannula	7 (0.2)	7 (3.0)
Vitals on presentation	Oxygen Saturation (%)	Mean (SD)	94.0 (6.2)	93.4 (7.2)		0.258
	Hear Rate		94.3 (19.7)	100.7 (20.7)		<0.001
	Respiratory Rate		20.9 (6.4)	21.3 (6.0)		0.283
	Diastolic Blood Pressure (mmHg)		74.7 (15.6)	74.6 (16.5)		0.897
	Systolic Blood Pressure (mmHg)		134.1 (24.9)	130.9 (25.6)		0.074
Labs on presentation	WBC (K/uL)		7.5 (4.5)	9.4 (6.0)		<0.001
	Lymphocytes (K/uL)		15.5 (9.7)	13.7 (9.3)		0.007
	Neutrophils (K/uL)		67.4 (24.8)	66.5 (28.3)		0.645
	Hemoglobin A1c		7.8 (2.2)	7.4 (2.2)		0.281
	BNP (pg/mL)		167.2 (338.2)	189.5 (311.9)		0.387
	Ferritin (ng/mL)		9.2 (7.6)	11.6 (8.5)		<0.001
	Fibrinogen (mg/dL)		1.8 (2.3)	4.6 (5.0)		<0.001
	CRP (mg/dL)		753.3 (1673.9)	725.7 (978.0)		0.716
	D-dimer (ng/mL)		570.5 (168.3)	554.0 (207.1)		0.573
	IL-6 (pg/mL)		76.3 (127.4)	136.5 (159.8)		0.094
	LDH (U/L)		10.9 (2.9)	12.4 (5.1)		0.754
	ALT (U/L)		1.8 (1.4)	2.0 (1.3)		0.384
	AST (U/L)		322.9 (340.8)	370.1 (367.3)		0.079
	BUN (mg/dL)		53.1 (205.8)	64.5 (204.0)		0.436
	Creatinine (mg/dL)		2.1 (8.7)	1.3 (2.2)		0.008
	Potassium (meq/L)		26.0 (21.3)	30.3 (26.0)		0.018
	T.bilirubin (mg/dL)		1.6 (2.0)	1.6 (1.9)		0.711
	Hemoglobin Total (gm/dL)		4.0 (0.7)	4.1 (0.8)		0.034
	Lactate (mmol/L)		0.8 (0.6)	1.0 (2.6)		0.227
	PlateletCount (K/uL)		218.1 (95.3)	258.7 (144.2)		<0.001
Social history
	Smoker		216 (7.4)		19 (8.1)	0.826
	Alcohol Use		45 (1.5)		7 (3.0)	0.168
	Marijuana Use		18 (0.6)		3 (1.3)	0.443

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of COVID-19 patients with and without acute venous thromboembolism (continued)

	Variable			No VTE	VTE	p value
Medication	Inpatient anticoagulation therapeutic dose			302 (11.5)	101 (46.3)	<0.001
	Inpatient anticoagulation prophylactic dose			2446 (92.8)	162 (74.3)	<0.001
	Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs			29 (10.9)	5 (18.5)	0.384
	Azithromycin			21 (7.9)	4 (14.8)	0.383
	Hydroxychloroquine			4 (1.5)	1 (3.7)	0.949
	Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors			66 (24.7)	9 (33.3)	0.455
	Angiotensin - ll receptor blockers			42 (15.7)	5 (18.5)	0.919
	Beta blockers			91 (34.1)	7 (25.9)	0.52
	Diuretics			85 (31.8)	9 (33.3)	1
	Statins			115 (43.1)	8 (29.6)	0.252
	Warfarin			12 (4.5)	2 (7.4)	0.839
	Aspirin			88 (33.0)	5 (18.5)	0.187
	P2Y12 inhibitors			10 (3.7)	2 (7.4)	0.685
	Direct-acting oral anticoagulants			17 (6.4)	0 (0.0)	0.359
	Other anticoagulants			7 (2.6)	0 (0.0)	0.85
	Corticosteroids			26 (9.7)	4 (14.8)	0.619
	Oxygen requirement prior to admission	Yes		18 (6.7)	0 (0.0)	0.319
	Oxygen requirement prior to admission	Unknown		5 (1.9)	1 (3.7)
	Proton pump inhibitors			70 (26.2)	10 (37.0)	0.329
Lab values (Maximum and Minimum)	White blood cell count Max		Mean (SD)	8.8 (5.3)	10.4 (6.2)	<0.001
	Lymphocytes Min			12.3 (7.6)	11.0 (7.5)	0.013
	Neutrophils Max			84.0 (10.6)	86.0 (10.5)	0.007
	Hemoglobin A1c Min			7.8 (2.2)	7.4 (2.2)	0.291
	B-type natriuretic peptide Max			168.8 (333.9)	197.0 (318.8)	0.283
	C-reactive protein Max			7.6 (5.8)	9.8 (8.1)	<0.001
	D-dimer Max			2.3 (2.5)	4.7 (3.8)	<0.001
	Ferritin Max			871.4 (2476.0)	773.6 (1094.9)	0.284
	Fibrinogen Max			594.3 (168.9)	571.8 (196.6)	0.423
	Interleukin-6 Max			79.3 (137.6)	138.3 (160.5)	0.104
	Hemoglobin Min			10.0 (2.4)	10.6 (0.5)	0.445
	Lactate Max			2.0 (1.5)	2.4 (2.7)	0.165
	Lactate dehydrogenase Max			380.0 (369.0)	438.1 (378.4)	0.036

Abbreviations: Max, maximum; min, minimum; SD, standard deviation.

Table 2. Significant variables in predicion models, listed in descending order: (1). Multiple linear regression(MLR) (2). Multiple logistic regression(LR) (3). Decision tree (4). Random forest

Multiple linear regression	Multiple logistic regression	Decision tree	Random forest
D-dimer	D-dimer	Therapeutic anticoagulation inpatient	D-dimer
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis	History of Vvenous thromboembolism	History of venous thromboembolism	Therapeutic anticoagulation inpatient
History of venous thromboembolism	Mechanical ventilation	D-dimer	Platelet count
Therapeutic anticoagulation inpatient	Therapeutic anticoagulation inpatient	Age	Blood urea nitrogen
High flow nasal Cannula	High flow nasal Cannula	Race	Age
Mechanical ventilation	Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis	Blood urea nitrogen	WBC count
Coronary artery bypass grafting	Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis	Hospital length of stay	Systolic blood pressure on presentation
Heart rate on presentation	Thyroid disease		Lymphocytes
Alanine aminotransferase	Nasal Cannula or Non-rebreather Mask		Alanine aminotransferase
Chronic kidney disease	Coronary artery bypass grafting		Abnormal potassium level (higher or lower)
	Chronic kidney disease		BNP
	Ferritin		C-reactive protein
			Creatinine
			Lactate dehydrogenase
			Neutrophils
			Heart rate on presentation
			Total bilirubin
			Aspartate transaminase (AST)
			Diastolic blood pressure on presentation
			Venous thromboembolism
			Ferritin
			Oxygen saturation on presentation

Table 3. Model performance for VTE prediction in COVID-19 patients

Model	Misclassification Rate		R-square		AIC	BIC	Sensitivity	Specificity	PPV	NPV	AUC
	TS	VS	TS	VS
Multiple linear regression	NA	NA	25.39%	16.29%	50	355	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Multiple logistic regression	5.74%	9.64%	41.12%	3.79%	436	742	0.76	0.76	0.87	0.85	0.80
Decision tree	7.11%	9.65%	19.89%	11.35%	NA	NA	0.69	0.65	0.78	0.79	0.77
Random forest	6.84%	8.40%	58.89%	18.76%	NA	NA	0.68	0.82	0.26	0.97	0.83

Abbreviations: AIC, Akaike information criterion; AUC, area under the curve; BIC, Bayesian information criterion; NA, not applicable; NPV, negative predictive value; PPV, positive predictive value, TS, training set; VS, validation set

Table 4A. Characteristics of retrospective studies on venous thromboembolism prediction models

Study	Country	Study type, time period	Total number of cases	Venous thromboembolism incidence rate	Prediction model	Performance
Kampouri et al. 2020	Switzerland	Retrospective, February 28^th to April 30^th, 2020	491	9.3% (41)	Wells score for PE ≥2 points and D-dimer value ≥3,000 ng/ml	PPV: 18.2% NPV: 98.5 Accuracy: 0.905
Dujardin et al. 2020	Netherlands	Retrospective, March 13^th to April 9^th, 2020	127	41.7% (53)	Binary linear regression model; D-dimer is >9 μg/ml and C-reactive protein >280 mg/ml	Predicted probability: 92%
Tsaplin et al. 2020	Russia	Retrospective, April 30^th to May 29^th, 2020	168	6.5% (11)	Modified Caprini score>12; D-dimer >3 ULN	Sensitivity: 73%; Specificity: 84%
Spyropoulos et al. 2021	United States	Retrospective, March 1^st, 2020 to April 27^th, 2020	9407	2.9% (273)	The International Medical Prevention Registry on Venous Thromboembolism and D‐Dimer (IMPROVE‐DD) risk assessment model	AUC: 70%; sensitivity: 97%; specificity: 22%
Freund et al. 2020	France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Chile, and Canada	Retrospective, February 1^st to April 10^th, 2020	3358 (included COVID-19 and non-COVID-19)	Did not report	Revised Geneva score and D-dimer (D-dimer below the age-adjusted threshold (i.e., 500 µg/mL under 50 years and age × 10 over 50 years))	AUC: 0.81

Abbreviations: AUC, area under the curve; NPV, negative predictive value; PPV, positive predictive value; ULN, upper limit of normal.

Table 4B. Characteristics of retrospective COVID-19 studies on venous thromboembolism incidence rate and predictors

Study	Country	Study type, time	Total number of cases	Incidence rate	Analysis performed	Identified predictors
Cohen et al.	United States	Retrospective, 1^st March to 27^th April 2020	9407	2.9% (2.4% in the medical ward and 4.9% in the intensive care unit	Multivariate analysis	For VTE or mortality: Advanced age Increasing CCI History of cardiovascular disease, ICU level of care, and Elevated maximum D-dimer with a cutoff at least four times the ULN
Dalager- Pedersen et al.	Denmark	Retrospective	1540	5% VTE, Both ICU and general ward	30-day absolute risks	This Study compared COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients showed COVID-19 patients had a higher risk of VTE
Freund et al.	France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Chile, Canada	Retrospective	974	15% only PE, DVT not studied	Multivariable binary logistic regression	Male gender Age>48 Heart rate Prior history of VTEs Clinical signs of DVT Recent immobilization
Mei et al.	China	Retrospective, 1^st January to 23^rd March 2020	616	2% VTE (DVT and/or PE)	15.6% COVID-19 pneumonitis patients had a high Pauda score (>4) in	This study compared calculated Pauda score in COVID-19 pneumonitis and community-acquired pneumonia
Poissy et al.	France	Retrospective case series, 27^th February to 31^st March, 2020	196 (ICU patients only)	6.1% PE only	Simple descriptive analysis	None
Rieder et al.	China	Retrospective, 26^th March to 20^th April, 2020	49	6.1% (n=3)	Spearman test	The level of D-dimers at hospital admission and the maximum level during follow-up were correlated with days at the hospital, days in ICU, days on non-invasive ventilation, or days on invasive ventilation.

Abbreviations: DVT, deep vein thrombosis; ICU, intensive care unit; PE, pulmonary embolism

BMCIDCOVIDVTESupplementaryFinalLee0124.docx

Download PDF

Reviews received at journal
11 Mar, 2022
Reviewers invited by journal
11 Mar, 2022
First submitted to journal
24 Jan, 2022

You are reading this latest preprint version

Venous Thromboembolism in COVID-19 Patients and Prediction Model: A Multicenter Cohort Study

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

Figures

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Abbreviations

Declarations

References

Tables

Supplementary Files

Status:

Version 1