Trend of fluctuations of antithrombin in plasma of patients with COVID-19: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Antithrombin is considered as one of the accused markers for the development of thrombosis in patients with COVID-19. Because plasma levels of antithrombin vary in patients with COVID-19, a meta-analysis was performed to determine the trend of antithrombin levels in patients with COVID-19. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A literature search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, and the Web of Science to find papers on antithrombin levels in patients with COVID-19. After removing duplicate papers, inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. The full texts of the articles were read to select relevant articles and then to identify the data needed. All meta-analyses were performed using Stata software v16.0. RESULTS: Testing for differences between subgroups showed a significant difference between ICU and non-ICU patients. Analysis showed a significant decrease in antithrombin level in patients with severe COVID-19. Analysis showed that the mean value of antithrombin level was 89.65% in all patients. The antithrombin level was significantly lower in the non-survivor group (87.52%) than in the survivor group (92.38%). CONCLUSION: Determination of antithrombin may be useful to determine the susceptibility of COVID-19 patients to hypercoagulability and to indicate the severity of COVID-19 infection.