Elevated Serum Urea-to-Creatinine Ratio and In-Hospital Death in Patients with Hyponatremia Hospitalized for COVID-19

Abstract

Hyponatremia is associated with adverse outcomes in hospitalized patients. An elevated value of the serum urea-to-creatinine ratio (UCR) has been proposed as a proxy of hypovolemia. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the UCR and in-hospital death in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and hyponatremia. We studied 258 patients admitted for COVID-19 between January 2020 and May 2021 with serum sodium at p = 0.001) after adjusting for potential confounders. In patients with a UCR > 40 at baseline, a > 10 mmol/L increase in serum sodium values within the first week of hospitalization was associated with higher odds of in-hospital death (OR = 2.93, 95% CI: 1.03–8.36, p = 0.044) compared to patients who experienced a 10 mmol/L increase in serum sodium within the first week of hospital stays may further worsen the in-hospital prognosis.

Keywords

• sodium
• hyponatremia
• urea-to-creatinine ratio
• COVID-19
• mortality
• intensive care unit