Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported to show hypoxia without displaying typical clinical signs or symptoms, called "happy hypoxia." To explore the potential of happy hypoxia as a distinctive symptom of COVID-19, we compared vital signs in the triage phase between patients with and without COVID-19. METHODS: We retrospectively identified emergency patients with and without COVID-19 admitted to Rakuwakai Marutamachi Hospital, Kyoto, Japan, between January 2021 and December 2021. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: 317 patients were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis, including all vital signs, demonstrated that the respiratory rate was not statistically associated with COVID-19 (odds ratio, 0.94, p = 0.058), suggesting that happy hypoxia may not be a distinct hallmark of COVID-19.