Electrolyte Imbalance and Impaired Kidney Functions in COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients

Objective: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as COVID-19, is a pandemic infection that first appeared in Wuhan, China and is responsible for acute respiratory illness. The symptoms of this infection range from being mild and restricted to developing fever, cough, and loss of smell or taste, to severe life-threatening pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and the severity could reach beyond that level and convert to a multi-organ failure or death. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is known to be the receptor that used by coronavirus to enter the cells, and hence, multi-organ infection could result. From that point, renal involvement, including impaired kidney function and electrolyte imbalance, is one of the complications that might develop. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 patients, 29 males and 31 females, were recruited in this study, where blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine, sodium, potassium, and chloride were evaluated. Results: The results revealed elevated levels of BUN and serum creatinine and decreased levels of sodium and chloride and to some extent, potassium levels. Few samples were diagnosed with increased levels of serum electrolytes. Conclusion: The results revealed the presence of electrolyte imbalance and kidney dysfunction associated with COVID-19 infection. Further investigations need to be carried out to estimate to what extent the changes in these biochemical parameters could be risk factors for developing acute kidney injury (AKI) and eventually death.