Abstract
Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the characteristics of renal function in patients diagnosed with COVID-19.Methods: In this retrospective, single-center study, we included all confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital in Guangdong, China from January 20, 2020 to March 20, 2020. Blood and urine laboratory findings related to renal function were summarized, and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and endogenous creatinine clearance (Ccr) were also calculated to assess the renal function.Results: A total of 12 admitted hospital patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, included 3 severe cases, and 9 common cases. Serum creatinine (Scr) was not abnormally elevated in all of the patients, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) was abnormally elevated in only 25.0% of the patients. However, compared with the recovery period, the patient's Scr and BUN increased significantly in peak of disease (p-scr = 0.002 & p-bun < 0.001). By observing the fluctuations in Scr and BUN from admission to recovery, it was found that the peak of Scr and BUN appeared within the first 14 day of the course of the disease. Urinary microprotein detection indicated that the abnormally elevated rates of urine microalbumin (UMA), α1-microglobulin (A1M), urine immunoglobulin-G (IGU), and urine transferring (TRU) standardized by urinary creatinine in peak of disease were 41.7, 41.7, 50.0, and 16.7%, respectively. The abnormal rates of the calculated eGFR and Ccr were 66.7 and 41.7%.Conclusion: Scr and BUN were generally increased during the course of COVID-19. Detection of urinary microproteins and application of multiple indicators assessment could be helpful for discovering abnormal renal function in patients with COVID-19. However, the evidence is limited due to the small sample size and observational nature. Additional studies, especially large prospective cohort studies, are required to confirm these findings.
Highlights
Since December 2019, unexplained clustered pneumonia cases have started to appear in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
The microproteins in urine are potential early biomarkers associated with renal impairment, most of them are closely related to glomerular filtration function and renal reabsorption function
Urinary microprotein detection in the included 12 COVID-19 patients find that the abnormally elevated rates of urine microalbumin (UMA), A1M, immunoglobulin G (IGU), and TRU standardized by urinary creatinine in peak of disease are higher
Summary
Since December 2019, unexplained clustered pneumonia cases have started to appear in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China It is identified as a pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus infection [1, 2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) named the coronavirus 2019-nCoV, which was the third coronavirus that infects humans from wild hosts across germlines after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and can cause severe pneumonia. It is the seventh species of pathogenic human respiratory coronaviruses [3, 4]. The spread of disease has caused huge lives and economic losses to the world
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