Cardio, kidney diseases are other most predictors

In the analysis carried out using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by nference Labs, a Bengaluru-based company, cardiovascular chronic disease (heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy) and chronic kidney disease proved the other most significant predictors of complication in early Covid infection.

“These findings will help clinicians prioritise patients according to their vulnerability for developing complications and focus on the commonest complications that are associated with different co-morbidities and, thus, save lives,” Venky Soundararajan, co-founder and chief scientific officer of nference, the parent company of nference Labs, told TOI.

For the analysis Soundararajan explained the researchers leveraged 1.1 million clinical notes from 1,803 hospitalised patients and deep neural network models to characterise associations between 21 pre-existing conditions and the development of 20 complications throughout the course of Covid infection. “Pleural effusion, or accumulation of fluid in the lungs, was the most common of early Covid infection complications (4.9%) followed by cardiac arrhythmia,” he said.

Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director of Max Healthcare, said his own hospital group’s study involving over 18,000 Covid patients similarly showed how hypertension was a major risk factor for developing complications due to the infection.