Extract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 poses an unprecedented global healthcare challenge. Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia frequently causes hypoxaemic respiratory failure, manifesting in the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Recently, authors have proposed distinct clinical phenotypes of COVID-19 pneumonia in several influential, high-profile essays [1–3]. For example, in a recent perspective in this journal [3], the authors speculated that COVID-19 has five phenotypic presentations: three phenotypes based on severity of hypoxaemia and need for supportive care (no hypoxaemia, mild hypoxaemia, and moderate hypoxaemia), and two phenotypes of severely hypoxaemic patients based on additional physiological and clinical features.
Abstract
By prematurely phenotyping patients with COVID-19, we and our patients are exposed to considerable and preventable risk. If data-driven phenotypes are not insisted upon, our cognitive biases guarantee that we'll end up with phenotype-driven data. https://bit.ly/2ZM8wZV
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: L.D.J. Bos reports grants from the Dutch lung foundation (young investigator grant), the Dutch lung foundation (public-private partnership grant), the Dutch Lung Foundation (Dirkje Postma Award), personal fees from Bayer (for consultancy), outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: P. Sinha has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: R.P. Dickson has nothing to disclose.
- Received May 13, 2020.
- Accepted May 23, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020
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