Ezetimibe Evaluation as a Treatment of Hyperlipidemia in Patients with Covid-19: A Case Report

ABSTRACT

The current coronavirus disease known as (COVID-19) which has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019 as a global health emergency and then after as a pandemic, represents a big challenge to all healthcare systems worldwide specially for managing the infection among patients who are hospitalized, acutely ill or elderly. The death rate caused by COVID-19 is not predictable but is increased by many factors including age, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and cardiovascular disorders. Since a lot of patients with these conditions are under lipid-lowering therapy, we carried out this case report study to understand the effectiveness, safety, and potential interactions between Ezetimibe, and patients with acute COVID-19 infection. In this study, the lipid profile, kidney functions, and glycated hemoglobin has been measured baseline and then after 25 days for patient with hyperlipidemia and suffers from acute COVID-19 infection. Serum cholesterol level, HDL, LDL and HDL risk factor were decreased in COVID case by 17%, 10%, 21%, and 7%, respectively. Interestingly, we observed a considerable increase in triglycerides concentration by 13.5%. These findings reveal that Sars-CoV-2 might be a factor interacting with hyperlipidemia-reducing therapy, and lower ezetimibe efficacy. However, larger cohort studies are required to confirm these findings.