Serum lipid profile changes and their clinical diagnostic significance in COVID-19 Mexican Patients

  1. Juan Fidel Osuna-Ramos
  2. Horacio Rendón-Aguilar
  3. Luis Adrián De Jesús-González
  4. José Manuel Reyes-Ruiz
  5. Arely Montserrat Espinoza-Ortega
  6. Luis Antonio Ochoa-Ramírez
  7. Alejandra Romero-Utrilla
  8. Efrén Ríos-Burgueño
  9. Alejandro Soto-Almaral
  10. Juan José Ríos-Tostado
  11. José Geovanni Romero-Quintana
  12. Héctor Ponce-Ramos
  13. Carlos Noe Farfan-Morales
  14. Rosa María del Ángel
  15. Héctor Barajas-Martínez
  16. José Rodríguez-Millán
  17. Jesús Salvador Velarde-Félix

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Abstract

Background

COVID-19 has been recognized as an emerging and rapidly evolving health condition. For this reason, efforts to determine changes in laboratory parameters of COVID-19 patients as biomarkers are urgent. Lipids are essential components of the human body, and their modulation has been observed implicated in some viral infections.

Methods

To evaluate the clinical diagnosis utility of the lipid profile changes in Mexican COVID-19 patients, the lipid profile of one hundred two COVID-19 positive patients from three hospitals in Culiacan, Sinaloa in northwest Mexico, was analyzed. ROC curves and binary logistic regression analysis were used as a predictive model to determine their clinical diagnostic utility.

Results

Significant changes in the serum lipid profile of patients with COVID-19, such as low levels of cholesterol, LDL, and HDL, while high triglycerides and VLDL were observed. The same abnormalities in the lipid profile among non-critical and critical COVID-19 patients were detected. The predictive model analysis suggests that cholesterol and LDL have AUC values of 0.710 and 0.769, respectively, for COVID-19 (p= 0.0002 and p= <0.0001), and LDL low levels might be a risk factor for critical COVID-19 (OR= 2.07, 95% IC: 1.18 to 3.63; p= 0.01).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that low cholesterol and LDL levels could be considered an acceptable predictor for COVID-19, and low levels of LDL might be a risk factor for critical COVID-19 patients.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.24.20169789: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The Research Ethical Committee of Hospital General de Culiacan "Bernardo J Gastelum" approved the study, and some patients writing informed consent, and in another, the consent was verbal.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The control subjects were negative for a viral panel (anti-dengue IgM and IgG, HIV, HCV antibodies) and belonged to the same geographic region.
    anti-dengue IgM
    suggested: None
    IgG, HIV, HCV antibodies
    suggested: None
    HCV
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The parametric Unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction was used to compare the lipid profile means of total COVID-19 patients between healthy controls, and the non-parametric U Mann Whitney test was used to compare age and lipid profile median values among non-critical and critical COVID-19 patients, using the GraphPad Prism software version 7.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    Moreover, binary logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% IC) between non-critical and critical COVID-19 patients based on the calculated optimal cut-off points using the MedCalc software version 14.
    MedCalc
    suggested: (MedCalc, RRID:SCR_015044)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This may be due to the limitations of our study, such as sample size or the low statistical power difference observed between both groups of patients. However, it cannot be ruled out that LDL levels may be useful for decision making in the evolution of COVID-19 critically ill patients, and more studies are needed, especially in high-risk populations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.24.20169789 on medRxiv