Prognostic Value of Dysnatremia in COVID-19 Disease

Objective: The infection of Corona 2019 (COVID-19) had first diagnosed in December 2019 and evolved into a worldwide pandemic in March 2020. In Turkey first diagnose was announced in March 2020. Low costed and easily accessible laboratory parameters needed for predicting the prognosis of this disease as its outcome pattern vary greatly from patient to patient. There is promising data on predicting the outcomes with disnatremic results.
Methods: In this study we retrospectively investigated all adults with the diagnosis of COVID-19 who attended to Turkan Ozilhan Hospital over a 3 months period. We evaluated the relation of dysnatremia (hyponatremia as <135 mmol/L or hypernatremia as >145 mmol/L) for need of intensive care unit (ICU) treatment, need of intubation for mechanic ventilatory support and inpatient mortality.
Results: one thousand seventy tree patients with COVID-19 [53..9% males (793 patients) and 46.1% females (680 patients), were investigated for this study. Their median age was 53.9 years ranging betweent 19-94. The dysnatremic groups had significantly higher rates of need for ICU and intubation The need for ICU was 89 (21.5%) patients in normonatremic group but 38 (76%) patients in hypernatremic and 71 (64%) in hyponatremic patients (p<0.01 for each of them). The mortality rate was 5% in normonatremic patients but 50% in hypernatremic and 28% in hyponatremic patients (p<0.01 for each of them).
Conclusion: In this study we aimed to draw attention to the importance of abnormal sodium levels as a predictive marker in COVID-19. In small town hospitals the physicians should be aware of the risks of disnatremic patients with COVID-19 and take precautions while treating them.