General characteristics of patients stratified according to noninvasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapeutic goal
| Full treatment | Do not intubate | p-value | |
| Patients | 397 | 140 | |
| Age years | 66 (57–72) | 79 (72–84) | <0.0001 |
| Male | 293 (74) | 98 (70) | 0.22 |
| BMI kg·m−2 | 28 (25–31) | 28 (25–31) | 0.74 |
| White blood cell count ×103 cells·μL−1 | 6.8 (5.1–9.1) | 7.1 (5.0–10.6) | 0.47 |
| Lymphocyte count ×103 cells·μL−1 | 0.8 (0.6–1.1) | 0.7 (0.5–1.1) | 0.04 |
| Creatinine mg·dL−1 | 0.9 (0.8–1.2) | 1.2 (0.9–1.5) | <0.0001 |
| Aspartate-aminotransferase U·L−1 | 42 (31–59) | 39 (26–60) | 0.36 |
| Alanine-aminotransferase U·L−1 | 34 (24–53) | 25 (19–39) | <0.0001 |
| C-reactive protein mg·dL−1 | 11 (6–17) | 12 (7–18) | 0.26 |
| Ferritin ng·mL−1 | 1068 (600–1674) | 817 (411–1389) | 0.08 |
| Lactate dehydrogenase U·L−1 | 575 (415–786) | 538 (393–760) | 0.47 |
| D-dimer μgFEU·L−1 | 897 (496–1665) | 1351 (637–3518) | 0.02 |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index | 0 (0–1) | 2 (1–3) | <0.0001 |
| Chronic arterial hypertension | 199 (50) | 79 (56) | 0.12 |
| Diabetes | 94 (24) | 44 (31) | 0.047 |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 37 (9) | 29 (21) | 0.001 |
| CPAP days | 4 (2–9) | 4 (1–8) | 0.33 |
| Hospital LOS days | 19 (11–30) | 11 (6–20) | <0.0001 |
Data are presented as n, median (interquartile range) or n (%), unless otherwise stated. BMI: body mass index; FEU: fibrinogen-equivalent unit; LOS: length of stay. p-values were calculated using Mann–Whitney U-test or Chi-squared test, as appropriate.