Endocrine Abstracts

Purpose: To assess the impact of serum corrected calcium (CorrCa), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P) levels at hospital admission on SARS-CoV-2 infection outcome.

Methods: In this retrospective study, all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalized in Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Madadahonda during 2020 were included. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were registered and related to the prognosis of the disease. Poor outcome was considered in patients who presented need for mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or in-hospital mortality.

Results: Of a total of 2,473 patients (956 females) aged (mean±S.D.) 63.4±15.9 years were studied. Median (IQR) hospitalization time was 7(4–13) days. During admission, 169 patients (6.8%) required mechanical ventilation, 205 (8.3%) were admitted to the ICU, and 270 (10.9%) died. Composite variable of poor outcome, defined as need for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission or death, was present in 434 (17.5%) patients. In univariate analysis, the need for mechanical ventilation was positively to related to Mg levels (OR 8.37, confidence interval [CI] 3.62-19.33; P<0.0001). ICU admission was related to CorrCa (OR 0.49, CI 0.25–0.99) and Mg levels (OR 5.81, CI 2.74–12.35; P<0.0001). In-hospital mortality was related to CorrCa (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.14–2.64; P=0.011) and the composite variable of poor outcome was only related to Mg (OR 2.68, 95% CI 1.54–4.68; P=0.001). However, in multivariate analysis CorrCa was significantly related to the need for mechanical ventilation (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.05–0.72; P=0.014) and ICU admission (OR 0.25; 95% CI 0.09–0.66; P=0.005), but not with in-hospital mortality or the composite variable of poor outcome. We found no relationship between poor outcome or mortality and serum levels of Mg or P in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusion: These results suggest that CorrCa can be used as a simple and reliable marker of poor outcome in patients with COVID-19, although not to predict the risk of in-hospital mortality.