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[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.21221.].
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[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.19487.].
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Introduction Vitamin D deficiency is a rising health issue in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). It can lead to serious issues such as rickets, periodontitis, osteoporosis, weakness, muscle ache, and depression. This study was conducted to determine the vitamin D status of patients with CKD in Pakistan and evaluate the correlation between serum vitamin D and renal function progression. Methodology A retrospective study enrolled patients who visited Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2015 to January 2021 with a primary diagnosis of CKD. Anthropometric, laboratory, and demographic data were collected from the hospital management information system (HMIS). Results A total of 513 patients with CKD were included in the study. More than 50% of the patients were from stage 3 to stage 5 of CKD while the rest were from stage 1 and stage 2. Significant differences are in relation to calcium, phosphate, and albumin across categories of severity of CKD. Calcium is lowest in stage 5 while phosphate is highest in stage 5. Vitamin D deficiency was found in all participants, but serum vitamin D concentration was lowest in stage 5, i.e., 8.14+6.00. The changing of vitamin D level was associated with the severity of CKD staging (p-value=0.003). Conclusion The current study has shown that vitamin D deficiency, calcium deficiency, and hyperphosphatemia are more common in patients with CKD, but their severity is more common in advanced stages of CKD.
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INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to determine whether remdesivir administration for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with reducing deaths among COVID-19 hospitalized patients. METHODOLOGY: It was a retrospective study, and the data was acquired at Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. All patients admitted between February and May 2021 with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) infection confirmed by polymerase chain reaction testing from nasopharyngeal samples were included in the study, including those who received at least five-day treatment of remdesivir and who did not receive even a single dose of remdesivir. RESULTS: Data of overall 174 patients were used, out of which 71 (40.80%) received remdesivir. After propensity score matching, 71 patients in the remdesivir group were successfully matched with the non-remdesivir patients on the basis of age, gender, and disease severity. Results of multivariable logistic regression showed that there is no significant difference in deaths between patients who received remdesivir and patients who did not receive remdesivir (p-value=0.122). However, the length of hospital stay was significantly lower in the remdesivir group than in the control group (p-value=0.001). CONCLUSION: Results of this study can provide evidence that remdesivir can be efficient in reducing the duration of COVID-19 illness, and a five-day course of treatment is sufficient for patients to get clinical benefits.
