{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T19:39:26Z","timestamp":1774381166264,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,27]],"date-time":"2025-04-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745712000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Patients hospitalized due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) usually present with severe or critical intensity of symptoms, accompanied by a marked systemic inflammatory response. Classical inflammatory biomarkers, C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) have previously been reported to be prognostic in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We performed a retrospective analysis of two large cohorts (2305 and 2328 patients, respectively) of consecutive hospitalized COVID-19 patients with mostly severe and critical symptoms admitted to the tertiary referral center to develop and validate a prognostic score for 30-day mortality based on CRP-to-Albumin-Ratio (CAR), RDW, and age (termed CARRA-VID score). We identified 6 prognostic categories: very low, low, intermediate-1, intermediate-2, high, and very high risk, with corresponding 30-day mortality rates of 2.7%, 10.7%, 30.9%, 47.1%, 61.9%, and 89.7%, respectively. Effective risk stratification was validated in an independent cohort of patients and remained independent of the World Health Organization-defined disease severity and other commonly utilized risk scores. Additional analyses evaluated the score across different time periods dominated by distinct viral variants. We also present a simplified 3-tiered version of the score. A Microsoft Excel Workbook containing the score calculator is provided.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v17050629","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,2]],"date-time":"2025-05-02T08:28:11Z","timestamp":1746174491000},"page":"629","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Development and Validation of the CARRA-VID Prognostic Score: C Reactive Protein to Albumin Ratio, Red Blood Cell Distribution Width and Age-Based Score for Prognostication of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1372-2040","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marko","family":"Lucijanic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Hematology, Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"Scientific Research and Translational Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5377-0269","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nevenka","family":"Piskac Zivkovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pulmonology, Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2725-6447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nikolina","family":"Busic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5949-0513","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Josip","family":"Stojic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Clinical Nutrition, Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2487-6878","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Armin","family":"Atic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Nephrology, Arterial Hypertension, Dialysis and Transplantation, Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Center Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lovorka","family":"Derek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"School of Medicine, Catholic University of Croatia, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8642-305X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivan","family":"Krecak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Internal Medicine Department, General Hospital of Sibenik-Knin County, 22000 Sibenik, Croatia"},{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"},{"name":"University of Applied Sciences, 22000 Sibenik, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bruno","family":"Barsic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"Internal Medicine Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9138-2037","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivica","family":"Luksic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"},{"name":"Maxillofacial Surgery Department, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1159\/000507423","article-title":"COVID-19 Outbreak: An Overview","volume":"64","author":"Ciotti","year":"2019","journal-title":"Chemotherapy"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1239","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.2648","article-title":"Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72,314 Cases From the 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