Incidence and risk factors of kidney impairment on patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Yang, Q.; Yang, X.

Background: The novel coronavirus is pandemic around the world. Several researchers have given the evidence of impacts of COVID-19 on the respiratory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal system. Studies still have debated on kidney injury of COVID-19 patients. The purpose of the meta-analysis was to evaluate the association of kidney impairment with the development of COVID-19. Methods: The PubMed, Embase and MedRxiv databases were searched until April 1, 2020. We extracted data from eligible studies to summarize the clinical manifestations and laboratory indexes of kidney injury on COVID-19 infection patients and further compared the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) and the mean differences of three biomarkers between in ICU/severe and non-ICU/non-severe cases. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 method. Results: In the sum of 19 studies with 4375 patients were included in this analysis. The pooled prevalence of AKI, increased serum creatinine (Scr), increased blood urea nitrogen (BUN), increased D-dimer, proteinuria and hematuria in patients with COVID-19 were 7.7%, 6.6%, 6.2%, 49.8%, 42% and 30.3% respectively. Moreover, the means of Scr, BUN and D-dimer were shown 6-folds, 1.8-folds and 0.68-folds, respectively, higher in ICU/severe cases than in corresponding non-ICU/non-severe patients. The prevalence of AKI was about 17 folds higher in ICU/severe patients compared with the non-ICU/non-severe cases. Conclusions: Overall, we assessed the incidences of the clinic and laboratory features of kidney injury in COVID-19 patients. And kidney dysfunction may be a risk factor for COVID-19 patients developing into the severe condition. In reverse, COVID-19 can also cause damage to the kidney.