Correlation between serum calcium levels and disease severity in patients with COVID-19 / 中华内分泌代谢杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the correlation between serum calcium levels and severity of novel coronavirus pneumonia(COVID-19).Methods:The clinical data of 165 COVID-19 patients diagnosed from January to February 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Combined with clinical classification, the differences of various indexes between the critically ill group and the control group were compared, and the influencing factors of disease severity were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. According to the corrected serum total calcium levels, patients were divided into low calcium group and normal calcium group, and the related indexes of the 2 groups were compared for further analyzing the causes of hypocalcemia. Results:Compared with the control group, the age, diabetes, basic respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease ratio, C-reactive protein(CRP), fasting blood glucose(FPG), interferon γ(IFN-γ), and interleukin 17(IL-17) levels increased while the lymphocyte percentage, serum albumin(ALB), corrected calcium levels, CD4 + T cells percentage, CD8 + T cell percentage decreased, the difference was statistically significant( P<0.05). There was no significant statistical difference in gender between the two groups, hypertension ratio, alanine aminotransferase(ALT), glomerular filtration rate(eGFR), CD4 +/CD8 + ratio and interleukin 4(IL-4) levels( P>0.05). The decrease of calcium level, age and eGFR were all risk factors for COVID-19 patients. Compared with the normal calcium group of COVID-19 patients, the level of ALB, CD4 + T cells percentage, CD8 + T cell percentage in low calcium group decreased and age, proportion of critically ill patients, diabetes, basic respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease ratio and CRP level all increased, the differences were statistically significant( P<0.05), and there was no statistical difference in the other biochemical indexes( P<0.05). Conclusion:There are obvious hypocalcemia and immune dysfunction in critically ill patients of COVID-19, and close monitoring of blood calcium levels may predict the severity of the disease more effectively