Frontiers in Medicine (Jan 2022)

Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase Level as a Prognostic Factor for COVID-19: A Retrospective Study Based on a Large Sample Size

  • Yihui Huang,
  • Liang Guo,
  • Jiwei Chen,
  • Meng Wu,
  • Chao Zhang,
  • Zeming Liu,
  • Jinpeng Li,
  • Kun Li,
  • Zhongwei Xiong,
  • Qian Wu,
  • Zhengwei Li,
  • Kuan Luo,
  • Weiwei Yuan,
  • Xiaohui Wu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.671667
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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Background: In this study, we investigated the relationship between serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level and disease progression and prognosis of patients with COVID-19.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the information of 1,751 patients with COVID-19 from Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses as well as Logistics regression analyses, and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to determine the association between LDH levels and the prognosis of COVID-19 patients.Results: LDH was an independent risk factor for in-hospital death no matter it was taken as classified variable and continuous variable (all P = 0.001) but not for severe or critical illness status. The Kaplan-Meier curves for LDH level showed that an elevated level of LDH was associated with in-hospital death.Conclusions: In patients with COVID-19, the increased LDH level is associated with a higher risk of negative clinical prognosis and higher mortality. This will provide a reference for clinicians and researchers to understand, diagnose, and treat patients with COVID-19. Further prospective studies with larger sample sizes are needed to verify these findings.

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