Prevalence and outcomes of D dimer elevation among the COVID-19 patients in tertiary care hospital, Salem.

Abstract

Introduction:The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which was initially reported in Wuhan and later spread to the rest of the world.[1] The incidence of thrombotic events has been reported to be 16% in patients admitted for COVID-19 with an increase in the fibrinogen level and D-dimer level which was associated with mortality. D-Dimer was found to be elevated in severely ill patients admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) and the dead patients. This study was done to find the prevalence of D-dimer elevation among the COVID-19 patients and its impact on the outcome and to find out the association between the D-dimer elevation and severity of the disease.Methodology:A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2020 to September 2020 in a tertiary care hospital in Salem in the Internal Medicine Department. All the COVID-19 patients of both sexes and all age groups were included in the study. The non-COVID pneumonia cases were excluded from the study. The data were collected from the participants after obtaining their written consent to take part in the study and the data were collected using a pretested and pre-validated schedule. Institutional ethical committee clearance was obtained before the start of the study.Results:The mean age of the patients was found to be 54.89 ± 14.4 with the minimum age being 14 and the maximum age being 87. The prevalence of the D-dimer elevation was found to be 143 (81.8%). D-Dimer was found to be significant with severe COVID infection.Conclusion:The D-dimer levels were found to be more in severe COVID infections compared to mild COVID infections. Furthermore, research is required in this field.