Urinary cytokines correlate with acute kidney injury in critically ill COVID-19 patients.
BACKGROUND
Acute kidney injury is common in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. Urinary biomarkers are a non-invasive way of assaying renal damage, and so far, urinary cytokines are not fully investigated. The current study aimed to assess urinary cytokine levels in COVID-19 patients.


METHODS
Urine was collected from COVID-19 patients (n = 29) in intensive care and compared to a preoperative group of patients (n = 9) with no critical illness. 92 urinary cytokines were analyzed in multiplex using the Olink Target 96 inflammation panel and compared to clinical characteristics, and urinary markers of kidney injury.


RESULTS
There were strong correlations between proinflammatory cytokines and between urinary cytokines and urinary kidney injury markers in 29 COVID-19 patients. Several cytokines were correlated to kidney injury, 31 cytokines to AKI stage and 19 cytokines correlated to maximal creatinine.


CONCLUSIONS
Urinary inflammatory cytokines from a wide range of immune cell lineages were significantly upregulated during COVID-19 and the upregulation correlated with acute kidney injury as well as urinary markers of kidney tissue damage.
['Gradin|A|A|', 'Andersson|H|H|', 'Luther|T|T|', 'Anderberg|S Bülow|SB|', 'Rubertsson|S|S|', 'Lipcsey|M|M|', 'Åberg|M|M|', 'Larsson|A|A|', 'Frithiof|R|R|', 'Hultström|M|M|']
D058186:Acute Kidney Injury D000368:Aged D000419:Albuminuria D015415:Biomarkers D000086382:COVID-19 D003404:Creatinine D003422:Critical Care D016638:Critical Illness D016207:Cytokines D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D000086402:SARS-CoV-2
Acute kidney injury COVID-19 Biomarkers Urine Intensive care Inflammation