Abstract
BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread worldwide. However, the impact of baseline lipid profile on clinical endpoints in COVID-19 and the potential effect of COVID-19 on lipid profile remain unclear.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, we consecutively enrolled 430 adult COVID-19 patients from two Chinese hospitals (one each in Chengdu and Wuhan). The lipid profile before admission and during the disease course and the clinical endpoint including in-hospital death or oropharyngeal swab test positive again (OSTPA) after discharge were collected. We used Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression to explore the lipid risk factors before admission associated with endpoints. Then, we assessed the lipid level change along with the disease course to determine the relationship between pathology alteration and the lipid change.ResultsIn the Chengdu cohort, multivariable Cox regression showed that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) dyslipidemia before admission was associated with OSTPA after discharge for COVID-19 patients (RR: 2.51, 95% CI: 1.19, 5.29, p = 0.006). In the Wuhan cohort, the patients with triglyceride (TG) dyslipidemia had an increased risk of in-hospital death (RR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.08, 3.60, p = 0.016). In addition, in both cohorts, the lipid levels gradually decreased in the in-hospital death or OSTPA subgroups since admission. On admission, we also noticed the relationship between the biomarkers of inflammation and the organ function measures and this lipid level in both cohorts. For example, after adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, smoking, and drinking status, the C-reactive protein level was negatively associated with the TC lipid level [β (SE) = -0.646 (0.219), p = 0.005]. However, an increased level of alanine aminotransferase, which indicates impaired hepatic function, was positively associated with total cholesterol (TC) lipid levels in the Chengdu cohort [β (SE) = 0.633 (0.229), p = 0.007].ConclusionsThe baseline dyslipidemia should be considered as a risk factor for poor prognosis of COVID-19. However, lipid levels may be altered during the COVID-19 course, since lipidology may be distinctly affected by both inflammation and organic damage for SARS-CoV-2.
Highlights
In December 2019, a new viral disease was identified in China, termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has since spread rapidly throughout the world until now (Huang et al, 2020)
The lipid level difference between COVID-19 patients with comorbidities and those without is shown in Supplementary Table S1, and we found that lipid levels (TC, TG, LDL-c) on admission were higher in the patients with metabolic diseases compared with the patients without these diseases
There was a linear trend between COVID-19 severity and the number of laboratory biomarkers of lymphopenia, inflammation [i.e., C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin], and organ function measures [i.e., aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or creatinine) on admission in both cohorts (Supplementary Tables S2, S3)
Summary
In December 2019, a new viral disease was identified in China, termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has since spread rapidly throughout the world until now (Huang et al, 2020). A novel beta-coronavirus, known as severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the COVID-19 pathogen and is known to trigger severe pneumonia and acute, often lethal, lung failure (Huang et al, 2020). Many discharged COVID-19 patients had positive oropharyngeal swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 RNA (Chen et al, 2020). COVID-19 oropharyngeal swab test positive again (OSTPA) after discharge or high mortality will inevitably impose a significant burden on healthcare systems due to treatment and the increased need for supervision after discharge (Hoang et al, 2020). The impact of baseline lipid profile on clinical endpoints in COVID19 and the potential effect of COVID-19 on lipid profile remain unclear
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