Prospective cohort study of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the Internal Medicine ward of Hospital Durand: study protocol

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The identification of poor clinical outcome predictors in patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) allows early recognition of those with a worse prognosis, thus providing better tools for clinical decision-making A cohort study protocol is hereby presented, wielding as the primary goal to identify risk factors for severe and critical infection together with in-hospital death in patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Internal Medicine Ward of Hospital Durand (Buenos Aires, Argentina) METHODS Single-center prospective cohort study It will include all patients admitted to the Internal Medicine ward with a diagnosis of COVID-19 during the study period Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics as well as treatment data will be collected upon patients' admission and until discharge or inhospital death The main outcome is in-hospital mortality, while secondary outcomes are the development of severe and critical illness, admission to the intensive care unit, and requirement of invasive mechanical ventilation