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Objectives: We aimed to analyze the laboratory data of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients for clinical help, to overcome the vulnerabilities of reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction testing for diagnosing COVID-19, and to reduce the number of negative results when diagnosing, particularly in global regions which are recognized to have limited resources. Materials and Methods: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, the authors performed a systematic literature review, using three databases to assess laboratory data of COVID-19-confirmed cases, and the articles that described significant laboratory irregularities were ultimately chosen. Crosschecking was performed on the references of these articles in order to identify further studies. The statistical software R version 3.6.1 was used for meta-analysis of COVID-19 studies. Results: A total of 13 relevant articles were included. They yielded a total of 2662 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. The analysis results demonstrated that male patients comprised a more substantial proportion, accounting for 57.9% of the total. The principal laboratory findings of the COVID-19 patients indicated that they commonly had lymphocytopenia 0.943 (confidence interval [CI]: 0.857–1.03), high D-dimer 0.459 (CI: 0.237–0.6808), high procalcitonin 0.089 (CI: 0.066–0.111), high C-reactive protein 17.203 (CI: 6.520–27.886), and high lactate dehydrogenase 278.265 (CI: 238.995–317.535). Conclusions: Infection with COVID-19 is associated with significant laboratory irregularities. The increased focus must be applied to laboratory parameters to quickly identify a large number of infected patients and asymptomatic carriers, prevent virus transmission, and assure timely treatment of patients, particularly in regions characterized by limited resources.

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Data from recent studies revealed that kidney diseases might affect the thyroid function in various ways. A variety of alterations in thyroid hormone levels and metabolism have also been reported in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) in some studied population. In addition, it was reported that serum levels of both T3 and T4 might altered immediately after a hemodialysis (HD) treatment than before. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the level of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) in CRF Libyan patients before and after HD. This study was carried out on 46 CRF patients (30 male and 16 female) with a mean age of 47.46 ±15.75 years. These patients were treated at the hemodialysis unit of Educational Central Zelitin Hospital, Zelitin, Libya. None of these patients apparently have any thyroid problems and no history of drug intake that may affect thyroid function. Blood samples were taken from each patient to measure serum levels of T3 and T4, before and after HD. In addition, the effect of several variables include age, gender, body mass index (BMI), presence of both hypertension and, diabetes mellitus and duration of kidney dialysis on serum levels of T3and T4 before and after HD were also studied. After HD, there was a statistically significant increase in the serum levels of T3, T4. The age, gender, BMI, duration of kidney dialysis and the presence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus did not have any significant effect on the serum level of T3 and T4 before and after HD. However, the serum levels of T3 and T4 were still in the normal range in these examined patients either before or after HD. From these findings, it can be concluded that these CRF patients may be in a euthyroid state, because the serum levels of T3 and T4 were in the normal range. In addition, HD was seem to improve the T3 and T4 thyroid hormone concentrations, suggesting that HD might activate the secretion of thyroid glandand catabolism. The other variables did not play any role in thyroid hormone levels in these patients either before or after HD. It is highly recommended that large scale evaluation of thyroid hormone levels in Libyan CRF patients is performed more patients, especially elderly patients.