Primary Aldosteronism and COVID-19-related Management, Disease Severity, and Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Figures

• 

  Figure 1.. Timeline of queries and evaluation for primary aldosteronism and essential hypertension patients. (A) For the initial evaluation comparing primary aldosteronism (PA) patients with vs without COVID-19, the query was performed in October 2021. The COVID-19 PCR testing result was identified between March 2020 and October 2021 for patients with PA. Clinical characteristics were extracted at the time of chart inspection before October 2021. (B) For the second evaluation comparing patients with PA with those with essential hypertension (EH) with COVID-19, the query for matched EH patients was performed in January 2022. The COVID-19 PCR test result was identified between March 2020 and January 2022 for patients with PA. CV complications were obtained during the acute COVID-19 encounter that was associated with the positive COVID-19 PCR test (which could have occurred between March 2020 and October 2021 for patients with PA and between March 2020 and January 2022 for patients with EH). Abbreviation: CV, cardiovascular.

• 

  Figure 2.. Flow chart of the participants in the study. The Research Patient Data Registry, a centralized clinical data registry for Mass General Brigham, was leveraged to obtain a primary aldosteronism cohort and an essential hypertension cohort. (A) The initial search for electronic health records (EHR) of patients with an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code for primary aldosteronism (PA) and a COVID-19 PCR test yielded a total of 308 patients. This cohort was divided into those with a positive COVID-19 PCR test and those without a positive COVID-19 PCR test. A diagnosis of PA was confirmed by chart review using standardized diagnostic criteria. Overall, there were 43 patients with PA and a positive COVID-19 PCR test and 81 patients with PA and a negative COVID-19 PCR test used in the analysis. (B) After the completion of the PA evaluation, a search was performed for a cohort of patients who both had an ICD code for essential hypertension (EH) and a positive COVID-19 PCR test. The EH cohort was matched 3:1 (accounting for the entire cohort of patients with PA) using the following 3 criteria: age (±10 years), race/ethnicity, and sex. A diagnosis of EH was confirmed by chart…