Study design and participants
This is a retrospective observational multicentre study, encompassing
two major COVID 19 ICU centres in London; including St Bartholomew’s
Hospital and the Nightingale Hospital London which was the field
hospital intensive care unit for COVID-19 during first wave of the
pandemic. The study population comprised of consecutive patients (over
the age of 18 years) admitted to COVID-19 intensive care units between
11th March and 05th May 2020 with
definitive clinical outcome either discharge or death. 113 patients
[St Bartholomew’s Hospital (73) and Nightingale Hospital (40)] were
included fulfilling the above criteria, however 4 patients were excluded
due to pre-existing diagnosis of permanent or persistent AF.
All patients had a laboratory confirmed diagnosis with detection of
SARS-CoV-2 RNA on swab (nasal/throat) results. Demographic, clinical,
laboratory and imaging data were extracted from the electronic medical
records (Cerner Millennium- registered clinical portal of the
institutions) and the details regarding premorbid conditions were also
cross referenced with their respective general practitioner’s (GP)
records.