Key clinical point: COVID-19 patients were more than twice as likely to die as were those without vertebral fractures.

Major finding: Hospitalized COVID-19 patient with vertebral fractures required noninvasive mechanical ventilation significantly more often (48.8% vs. 27.4%, P = .02), and were more than twice as likely to die (22% vs. 10%, P = .07) than were those with out such fractures.

Study details: The retrospective study included 114 COVID-19 patients whose lateral chest x-rays allowed for a high-quality assessment and in which all the thoracic tract of T4-T12 were viewable and assessable.

Disclosures: The authors had no disclosures.