Introduction: Clinical studies have shown that COVID-19 infection has resulted in worse outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension. This National Inpatient Sample (NIS) analysis from the year 2020 to 2022 aimed to determine the significant impact of COVID-19 infection in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Methods: We identified patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection and those with pulmonary hypertension from the 2020-2022 NIS database. STATA/MP 17.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: A total of 5,934,565 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 infection, and 3,139,883 patients were hospitalized with pulmonary hypertension. The patients with pulmonary hypertension were stratified based on their COVID-19 status. There were 2,963,298 patients with pulmonary hypertension without COVID-19 infection and 176,585 patients with pulmonary hypertension with COVID-19 infection. Caucasians, patients in the lowest national income quartile, and those with Medicaid insurance constituted the largest group among the ethnic, national income quartile, and insurance groups, respectively, in both categories. Patients with a Charleson Comorbid Index score of 3 and more, constituted the largest group in both categories. The outcomes of mortality, length of stay, and the need for invasive ventilation were compared between the two categories. The mean length of hospital stay among patients with pulmonary hypertension and COVID-19 infection was 10.4 days; for those without COVID-19 infection, it was 6.9 days, with adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 3.62 and a p-value of < 0.001. The mortality rate among patients with pulmonary hypertension and COVID-19 infection was 18.1 %; for those without COVID-19 infection, it was 5.5 %, with adjusted OR of mortality of 4.03 and a p-value of < 0.001. The need for invasive ventilation among patients with pulmonary hypertension and COVID-19 infection was 15.4%; for those without COVID-19 infection, it was 6.4% with adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.71 and a p-value of < 0.001. Conclusions: Our NIS analysis suggests that COVID-19 infection resulted in more severe outcomes of pulmonary hypertension with higher mortality rate, higher need for invasive ventilation and longer hospital stay.
Arumairaj et al. (Sun,) studied this question.