Nutritional Advice El MondoObjectives:
Excessive inflammation and malnutrition are associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and mortality. Combined biomarkers of malnutrition and inflammation, such as serum prealbumin, might be particularly attractive for early risk stratification. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Are lower serum prealbumin concentrations associated with COVID-19 severity and mortality?
Study design:
This review article included 19 studies with 4,616 COVID-19 patients.
3,502 (48% males, mean age = 52 years) with low severity or who survived and 1,114 (61% males, mean age = 64 years) with high severity or who died.
3 studies were prospective studies, 14 were retrospective studies, whereas the remaining 2 did not explicitly state the study design.
The Begg's [p = 0.06] and Egger's t-tests [p = 0.26] did not show publication bias.
The trim-and-fill method did not identify any study that was missing or should be added.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found that serum prealbumin concentrations were significantly lower in COVID-19 patients with severe disease and non-survivors [SMD = -0.92, 95% CI = -1.10 to -0.74, p 0.001, I2 = 77.9%, p 0.001].
In sensitivity analysis, the effect size was not significantly affected when each study was in turn removed [range between -0.86 and -0.95].
The investigators found pooled SMD values were significantly and negatively associated with age [t = -2.18, p = 0.045] and C-reactive protein [t = -3.85, p = 0.002].
The investigators concluded lower serum prealbumin concentrations are significantly associated with COVID-19 severity and mortality. This combined marker of malnutrition and inflammation might assist with early risk stratification and management in this group.
Original title:
Serum Prealbumin Concentrations, COVID-19 Severity, and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by Zinellu A and Mangoni AA.
Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870685/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on corona virus right here.