TY - JOUR T1 - Dying ‘due to’ or ‘with’ COVID-19: a cause of death analysis in hospitalised patients JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - e189 LP - e190 DO - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0440 VL - 20 IS - 5 AU - Thomas A Slater AU - Sam Straw AU - Michael Drozd AU - Stephe Kamalathasan AU - Alice Cowley AU - Klaus K Witte Y1 - 2020/09/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/20/5/e189.abstract N2 - The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is accompanied by an ever-rising death toll attributed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but questions have persisted regarding deaths formally attributed to COVID-19. We aimed to provide an independent review of clinical features of patients who died during hospitalisation with a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 and relate these to the reported cause of death. Between 23 March and 28 April 2020, a total of 162 patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR died in our NHS trust. COVID-19 infection was documented as the direct cause of death in 150 (93%). Review of the records revealed 138 (92%) patients had pulmonary infiltrates on chest radiography, and 146 (97%) required oxygen therapy. This retrospective review of cause of death has demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of hospitalised patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR died as a direct consequence of COVID-19 infection. ER -