Role of impaired nutritional status in Sars-Cov 2 patients

Scarpellini, E.; Santori, P.; Rasetti, C.; Basilico, M.; Giostra, N.

Rationale: SARS-COV 2 pandemia has hit on our lives affecting our survival rate. Preliminary evidences from literature have shown that obesity is a risk factor for higher mortality occurrence.Thus, we wanted to assess the nutritional status of patients admitted to our COVID-19 Unit. We aimed also to verify the possible correlation between nutritional status, inflammatory status and mortality. Method(s): we prospectively studied patients admitted to the COVID-19 Unit of San Benedetto General hospital. All the patients had biochemical, antropometric, HRCT chest scan and nutritional assessments at the time of admission and, at 15 days interval follow-up. Result(s): we studied 65 consecutive patients (mean age 65.8+/-2.5 years, BMI 23.2 Kg/m2). Main comorbidities were: diabetes (type 1 6%, type 2 35%), hypertension (45%), chronic ischemic heart disease (22 %), COPD (22%), anxiety (30%) and depression (20%). Moderate to severe overweight was present in 13% of patients;Onodera index (23.000+/-0.976), suggestive of malnutrition, was present in 20% of patients. Both PCR (C-reactive protein) and IL-6 values significantly correlated with worse radiologic pneumonitis progression (r=0.79 and r=0-72, respectively). After 15 days upon admission, we recorded 6 deaths (mean age 75.5+/-3.1 years, BMI 26.0 Kg/m2). Increased PCR and IL-6 values significantly correlated with exitus occurrence (r=0.78 and 0.75, respectively). Moreover, both overweight and malnutrition significantly correlated with exitus occurrence (r= 0.67 and r=0.70, respectively). Conclusion(s): we confirmed that higher inflammatory indexes significantly correlate with both worse radiological findings and fatal COVID-19 evolution. Interestingly, overweight and malnutrition, but not diabetes, significantly correlated with mortality. These results, if confirmed by larger perspective studies, can suggest a role for systemic micro-inflammation, related to both obesity and malnutrition, in worse disease evolution. Disclosure of Interest: None declaredCopyright © 2020