exploring the clinical implications of silent hypoxia in covid-19

Covid-19 patients exhibit a diverse range of symptoms, with some individuals remaining entirely asymptomatic. certain patients experience minimal or no noticeable symptoms, and in some cases, oxygen levels significantly drop without prominent clinical manifestations, a phenomenon is known as &silent& or &happy& hypoxia, which can potentially pose substantial risks to patients. a clinical study aims to assess the significance of silent hypoxia in covid-19 patients’ clinical course and to predict risk factors associated with it. 85 confirmed covid-19 patients with hypoxia were included in the study and exhibited room air oxygen saturation (spo2) levels below 92%. comprehensive patient histories and physical examinations were conducted, with the severity of breathlessness evaluated using a scale ranging from 0 to 10. breathlessness scored below 5 was categorized as silent hypoxia. various laboratory tests, including lymphocyte counts and serum ferritin levels, were performed. the findings of our investigation indicate that a majority of the patients in our study demonstrated favourable outcomes. notably, no significant disparity was observed in terms of clinical outcomes between hypoxic and non-hypoxic covid-19 patients (p>0.05). risk factors identified including elevated body mass index (bmi), age, and increased respiratory rate (rr) are addressed in this work and diagnosed as risk factors. silent hypoxia is a phenomenon observed among covid-19 patients, yet it does not appear to impact patients’ clinical trajectories significantly. obesity emerges as a potential risk factor for severe disease. high bmi and elevated rr are recognized as potential risk factors associated with the occurrence of silent hypoxia.