Conference Coverage

Hospitalization, Mortality Risk in Patients With AML Who are Hospitalized With COVID-19

Jessica Ganga

In a cross-sectional analysis, researchers found that patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were diagnosed with COVID-19 had a high mortality rate. Further, patients who received hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) were at high risk for hospitalization and mortality. The findings of their study were presented at the Society of Hematologic Oncology 2024 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.

The researchers sought to study COVID-19 mortality in patients with AML who were hospitalized for COVID-19  as the effects of the respiratory disease are limited to a few case series. For their study, researchers performed a cross-sectional analysis using the National Inpatient Sample (2020-2021). In total, 28,028 patients with AML were included in the analysis. Of the total, 336 patients (1.2%) were admitted with COVID-19, compared to 27,692 (98.8%) patients for other reasons.

The mortality rate in patients with AML who are hospitalized for COVID-19 was higher than that of all other causes (21.7% vs 8.7%; adjusted OR [AOR] = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.6; P = .023). In patients with AML, COVID-19 had a low rate of hospitalization (AOR = 0.3; 95% CI, 0.3to 0.3; P = .000).

Several predictors of mortality were identified in the study, which included: severe sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute respiratory failure, myocardial infarction, and invasive ventilation.

Further, patients who received HSCT for AML had a higher risk of COVID-19 (20.2% vs 9.8%; AOR = 2.6; 95% CI, 1.9 to 3.4; P =.000) and increased mortality (19.1% vs 6.7%; AOR = 4.1; 95% CI, 2 to 8.7; P = .000) compared with other causes of hospitalization.

“Our study revealed that AML patients with COVID-19 had a low risk of hospitalization but a high mortality rate. At the same time, HSCT recipients faced a higher risk of both hospitalization and mortality,” the researchers concluded. “Further research is necessary to identify predictors of mortality in HSCT recipients.”

 

Reference:
Sivasubramanian BP, Ravikumar DB, Khader ASHA, et al. The impact of COVID-19 on acute myeloid leukemia (AML): a propensity-matched analysis. In: Proceedings of the Society of Hematologic Oncology 2024 Annual Meeting. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2024 Sept;9(24);Supplement 1:S302