Assessment of Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics in Patients With Severe Covid-19 Infection: Focus on Hospital Hyperglycemia

Abstract

The article presents the results of our own studies of clinical, anamnestic and laboratory parameters in patients with severe COVID-19. The aim of the study was to identify possible clinical and laboratory predictors of an unfavorable out-come of a severe course of Covid-19 in patients with diabetes mellitus and hy-perglycemia. A retrospective analysis of data from primary medical records of 320 patients was performed. All patients received medical care in the intensive care unit of the infectious hospital in Minsk from June 2020 to March 2022. Based on the results of the assessment of glycemic parameters, all patients were divided into the following groups: 224 people with hospital hyperglycemia (HH), 51 patients with a history of diabetes mellitus (DM) and/or newly diagnosed and 45 people without glycemic disorders. Covid-19 infection confirmed by a positive PCR or antigen test from respiratory swabs. Patients with HH and DM had high-er levels of ESR, procalcitonin, CRP, LDH, neutrophils, more pronounced lym-phopenia, which indicated a more pronounced inflammatory process. The level of D-dimers was assessed as a biomarker of the coagulopathy process, it was al-so higher in the groups of patients with DM and HH. According to the results of the study, 70 % of patients with severe COVID-19 had newly diagnosed hyper-glycemia, and from day 4, patients with an unfavorable outcome showed a ten-dency to persistent hyperglycemia, which potentially indicates its role as a prog-nostic parameter.