Frailty assessment in the COVID-19 pandemic

Correspondence to Kenneth Jordan Ng Cheong Chung, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK; k.ng-cheong-chung@newcastle.ac.uk Dear Editor, We read with great interest the brief report by Labenz et al 1 entitled ‘Clinical Frailty Scale for risk stratification in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection’, which has recently been published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine. Other studies have also suggested the role of diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cerebrovascular disease as independent risk factors associated with COVID-19.8 Adjustment for patients with other chronic lung conditions, including COPD, could have also been evaluated as these patients are at a higher risk of requiring mechanical ventilation.9 It would also be interesting to know the significance of the difference between different laboratory values at admission as elevated procalcitonin (HR 1.72, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.90) and D-dimer (HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.58) at baseline were associated with risk for disease progression,10 while intensive care unit admission was predicted by raised leucocyte count (p