ABSTRACT
Background: Considering the role of higher blood urea nitrogen and lower serum albumin (SA) levels in deceased coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, an increased blood urea nitrogen to SA (B/A) ratio may help to determine those at higher risk of critical illness. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation of the B/A ratio with severity and 30-day mortality in COVID-19 patients. Methods: A total of 433 adult patients with COVID-19 were enrolled. The laboratory markers were measured on admission. Disease severity was categorized into mild disease, severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, and septic shock. The mortality was followed for 30 days after admission. χ 2 test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann-Whitney U test were performed, as appropriate. Also, logistic regression and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the B/A ratio are included. Results: Thirty-day mortality rate was 27.25%. The frequency of mild, severe pneumonia, ARDS, sepsis, and septic shock was 30.72%, 36.95%, 24.02%, 6.00%, and 2.31%, respectively. B/A ratio and SA levels were statistically different between alive and deceased patients. The mean B/A ratio was different among classified disease severities, except for mild disease. Logistic regression revealed the B/A ratio as an independent risk factor for sepsis after adjusting for age and sex. ROC analysis showed B/A ratio had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.733 for mortality at the cutpoint of 4.944. AUC for sepsis was 0.617 which was greater than other disease severities. Conclusion: The results showed that B/A ratio and SA levels are associated with mortality of COVID-19 patients. A higher B/A ratio is, additionally, associated with COVID-19 severity, except in mild cases and it can act as an independent risk factor in sepsis. However, a greater B/A ratio is not a significant predictor of COVID-19 severity, but it can predict mortality. Therefore, we suggest this marker for clinical assessment of patients with severe COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to compare the donation process before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in an organ procurement unit in Iran and to discuss different strategies to address the impact of the pandemic on the donation process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All activities including donor detection, donor selection, family approach, donors characteristics, rate of organs per donor, and types of organs were compared between 2 intervals over 18 months (March 2020 to June 2021 [during the COVID19 pandemic] vs November 2018 to February 2020 [before the pandemic]). RESULTS: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 218 and 137 brain dead donors with mean age of 42.6 ± 14.5 and 42.8 ± 15.5 years, respectively (P = .82). The prevalence of tumors leading to brain death decreased by more than half during the COVID-19 pandemic (P = .04). There was a 52% increase in cardiac death before organ retrieval during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 38% from 25% before COVID-19. During the 2 intervals, the number of organs per donor was 2.3 ± 1.2 and 2.2 ± 1.2 (P = .52). The rate of actual to potential donors before and during the pandemic was significantly different, with 42.16 ± 7.8% before and 29.9 ± 4.8% during the pandemic, mostly as a result of unsuitable donors. The time to obtain family consent during the COVID-19 pandemic was 35.1 ± 8.5 hours, which was a significantly longer length of time than before the pandemic (21.3 ± 12.3 hours; P = .008). CONCLUSIONS: In our organ procurement unit, which encompasses a population of 5.5 million in Tehran, Iran, the number of actual donors was reduced dramatically during the studied pandemic period. However, despite a high workload, all transplant centers and organ procurement units in Iran worked to identify and transplant the available organs to reduce wait list mortality.
