Serum uric acid, disease severity and outcomes in COVID-19

Critical Care

Xavier Wittebole¹  Ludovic Gérard¹  Pierre-François Laterre¹  Gregory Schmit²  Leila Belkhir³  Julien De Greef³  Jean Cyr Yombi³  Marie Perrot⁴  Inès Dufour⁴  Alexis Werion⁴  Anastazja Wisniewska⁴  Johann Morelle⁴  Michel Jadoul⁴ 

[1] Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, 1200, Brussels, Belgium;Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium;Department of Pathology, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium;Division of Infectious Diseases, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium;Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium;Division of Nephrology, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, 1200, Brussels, Belgium;Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium;

关键词: SARS-CoV-2;    Acute respiratory distress syndrome;    Mechanical ventilation;    Proximal tubule;    Hypouricemia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13054-021-03616-3

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly variable between individuals, ranging from asymptomatic infection to critical disease with acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring mechanical ventilation. Such variability stresses the need for novel biomarkers associated with disease outcome. As SARS-CoV-2 infection causes a kidney proximal tubule dysfunction with urinary loss of uric acid, we hypothesized that low serum levels of uric acid (hypouricemia) may be associated with severity and outcome of COVID-19.MethodsIn a retrospective study using two independent cohorts, we investigated and validated the prevalence, kinetics and clinical correlates of hypouricemia among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to a large academic hospital in Brussels, Belgium. Survival analyses using Cox regression and a competing risk approach assessed the time to mechanical ventilation and/or death. Confocal microscopy assessed the expression of urate transporter URAT1 in kidney proximal tubule cells from patients who died from COVID-19.ResultsThe discovery and validation cohorts included 192 and 325 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, respectively. Out of the 517 patients, 274 (53%) had severe and 92 (18%) critical COVID-19. In both cohorts, the prevalence of hypouricemia increased from 6% upon admission to 20% within the first days of hospitalization for COVID-19, contrasting with a very rare occurrence (< 1%) before hospitalization for COVID-19. During a median (interquartile range) follow-up of 148 days (50–168), 61 (12%) patients required mechanical ventilation and 93 (18%) died. In both cohorts considered separately and in pooled analyses, low serum levels of uric acid were strongly associated with disease severity (linear trend, P < 0.001) and with progression to death and respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation in Cox (adjusted hazard ratio 5.3, 95% confidence interval 3.6–7.8, P < 0.001) or competing risks (adjusted hazard ratio 20.8, 95% confidence interval 10.4–41.4, P < 0.001) models. At the structural level, kidneys from patients with COVID-19 showed a major reduction in urate transporter URAT1 expression in the brush border of proximal tubules.ConclusionsAmong patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, low serum levels of uric acid are common and associate with disease severity and with progression to respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY