The roles of bun/d-dimer and bun/lactate ratios in indicating mortality in intensive care patients with COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Aim: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an epidemic disease with variable symptoms and high mortality rates. Therefore, patient follow-up is very significant. We aimed to investigate whether blood urea nitrogen (BUN), D-dimer and lactate parameters, which are laboratory tests used in follow-up, predict mortality. Material(s) and Method(s) The study included 173 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the pandemic intensive care unit from March 2020 to June 2020. We retrospectively recorded patient age, gender, comorbidity, radiological involvement, oxygen demand, APACHE scores, in-hospital mortality status, BUN, lactate, and D-dimer levels, BUN/D-dimer ratio (BDR), BUN/lactate ratio (BLR). Then we made the statistical comparison between the groups by grouping the patients as discharged and deceased. Result(s) Among the patients included in the study, 107 (61.8%) were male and 66 (38.2%) were female. The mean ages between those discharged and those who died in the hospital were 73 and 67.5 years, respectively, and there was a statistically significant difference. The median BUN, d-dimer, lactate and BDR, BLR values of the patients in the non-survivor group were significantly higher than those in the survivor group. BLR had the highest diagnostic ratio (25.03) for estimating in-hospital COVID-19 mortality. Discussion(s) We found that BUN, BDR, and BLR levels were reliable predictors of in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. However, BLR was a potent risk assessment tool, especially in defining the risk of in-hospital death.Copyright © 2022, Derman Medical Publishing. All rights reserved.