Urinary trace elements in association with disease severity and outcome in patients with COVID-19.
BACKGROUND
The dynamics of urinary trace elements in patients with COVID-19 still remains to be investigated.


METHODS
A retrospective study was performed on a cohort of 138 confirmed COVID-19 patients for their urinary levels of essential and/or toxic metals including chromium, manganese, copper, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, mercury, thallium and lead according to the different disease severity (severe or non-severe) and outcome (recovered or deceased).


RESULTS
Urinary concentrations of chromium, manganese, copper, selenium, cadmium, mercury and lead after creatinine adjustment were found to be higher in severe patients than the non-severe cases with COVID-19. And among the severe cases, these elements were also higher in the deceased group than the recovered group. When the weeks of the post-symptom onset were taken in account, the changes of these urinary elements were existed across the clinical course since the disease onset. These urinary elements were found to be mostly positively inter-correlated, and further positively correlated with other laboratory inflammatory parameters including serum cytokines (IL-1B, IL2R, IL6, IL8, IL10, TNFα), ferritin, and neutrophil count and white blood cell count. As a independently predictive factor, urinary creatinine-adjusted copper of ≥25.57 μg/g and ≥99.32 μg/g were associated with significantly increased risk of severe illness and fatal outcome in COVID-19, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest abnormities in urinary levels of the trace metals were tightly associated with the severe illness and fatal outcome of COVID-19.
['Zeng|Hao-Long|HL|', 'Zhang|Bo|B|', 'Wang|Xu|X|', 'Yang|Qing|Q|', 'Cheng|Liming|L|']
D000086382:COVID-19 D002104:Cadmium D003300:Copper D006801:Humans D012189:Retrospective Studies D000086402:SARS-CoV-2 D012643:Selenium D012720:Severity of Illness Index D014131:Trace Elements
Trace elements Severity Outcome COVID-19 Urine