Frequency of deranged renal profile in patients with COVID-19: Tertiary Care Experience from a developing country

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic, also affecting Pakistan with its first case reported on February 26, 2020. Since then, it has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Our study aimed to evaluate the renal derangements associated with COVID-19 infection in our population. A retrospective, observational study was conducted to include all the admitted patients having COVID-19 positive, and evaluated those for derangements of renal function (n = 362). Out of the 362 patients, 229were admitted in the ward, 133 were in intensive care unit (ICU), 258 of them recovered, while 104 deaths reported. At admission, the renal profile was deranged in almost one-half of ICU admissions and mortalities which increased to two-third during the hospital stay, with around 80% of deaths reported with increased urea and creatinine levels. Among the deceased patients, around one-third of the mortalities developed renal profile derangements during the hospital stay although they were admitted with a normal renal profile. An estimated glomerular filtration rate showed a mean increase of 13.37 mL/min/1.73 m² during the hospital stay of surviving patients, while a decline of 19.92 in nonsurviving patients. A hazard ratio of 3.293 (P <0.001) for admitting serum urea and 3.795 (P = 0.009) at discharge and for serum creatinine at 5.392 (P <0.001) on discharge was associated significantly with mortality. Kaplan-Meier plot showed a significant decline in days of survival with deranged urea and creatinine (P <0.001). The deranged renal function in COVID-19 patients is associated with an increased number of ICU admissions as well as mortalities.