PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Low serum albumin and the risk of hospitalization in COVID-19 infection: A retrospective case-control study.

  • Roshan Acharya,
  • Dilli Poudel,
  • Aakash Patel,
  • Evan Schultz,
  • Michael Bourgeois,
  • Rishi Paswan,
  • Scott Stockholm,
  • Macylen Batten,
  • Smita Kafle,
  • Amanda Atkinson,
  • Hafiz Sarwar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250906
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 4
p. e0250906

Abstract

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BackgroundThe data on the COVID-19 patients who were discharged to self-quarantine is lacking.AimThe aim of the study was to investigate the percentage of COVID-19 positive patients that were hospitalized within a three-week period after discharge from ED to self-quarantine.MethodsThe patients who had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR of the nasopharyngeal swab and were discharged from ED of a tertiary care hospital in the USA to self-quarantine from March 01- July 31, 2020, were included. Patients were divided into two groups based on serum albumin levels and were followed up for three weeks to see if low level of albumin increased the risk of hospitalization. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to study the effect of albumin level and outcomes.ResultsA total of 112 patients were included in the study out of which 65 had low serum albumin (ConclusionThe low serum albumin was not associated with the risk of hospitalization in COVID-19 patients who were initially discharged to self-quarantine.