Investigating the Electrolyte Changes of COVID-19 Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit

Serum electrolyte imbalance is very common in COVID-19 patients. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding their relationship with COVID-19 and its severity, and their prognostic value is unknown. Our aim of this study is to investigate electrolyte changes in COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz.

The present study is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical epidemiological type that was conducted in 1400. The target population was the COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz. Required tests were performed on all patients admitted to the special care department and diagnostic tests including Ca, K, Na, Cr, BUN, Mg, and P were collected and the effect on the prognosis of patients including intubation, mortality and extubating and discharge from the ward and The hospital was registered. Then the data were analyzed by SPSS 22 software and appropriate statistical tests.

Finally, 87 people were included in the study. Hyponatremia, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia and hypocalcemia, Cr, and high BUN respectively in 2.55%, 3.4%, 6.27%, 8.59%, 8.82%, 5.5%, patients with covid- 19 were observed. There was a significant difference between the two groups of men and women and the average potassium was higher in women than in men (P=0.041). No significant relationship was found between other electrolytes and the variables of age, gender, history of disease, intubation, discharge, and mortality (P>0.05).

The present study showed that electrolyte imbalance is one of the common laboratory abnormalities in COVID-19 disease.