Biochemical Profile of Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 at the Infectious Disease Management Centre in Lomé in 2020

Background: COVID-19, an infectious viral disease, has caused a global health crisis. Most cases remain asymptomatic. The majority of patients have mild symptoms while about 15% develop a severe form. The clinical spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 infection appears broad, encompassing asymptomatic infection, upper respiratory tract symptoms, and severe viral pneumonia with respiratory failure that can lead to death. Laboratory tests play an important role in the management of COVID-19 patients. In addition to being essential for the diagnosis, several biological analyses make it possible to identify the inflammatory processes and the potential complications of this disease. This study attempted to identify biochemical assays that could help in the prognosis of the disease to ensure early management. Methods: This was a descriptive study. It focused on patients hospitalized for COVID-19 from March 19, 2020, to January 26, 2021, at the Infectious Disease Management Centre in Lomé (Togo). Medians were compared using the (Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon) test and frequencies were compared using the Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. Results: We included 782 patients. The median age was 41 years IQR from 32 to 55. We observed several biochemical abnormalities in varying proportions for all biochemical parameters studied. Compared to non-serious patients, critically ill patients at admission had more frequently elevated urea, creatinine, transaminases, TG, GGT, CRP and blood glucose. Also, they had more frequent decreases in total cholesterol, HDL-c, blood chloride, and blood calcium. As for patients who died during hospitalization, compared with healed patients, they had more frequent elevations of urea, creatinine, AST, ALT, GGT. CRP and blood glucose. They also had a more frequent decrease in total cholesterol, HDL-c, blood chloride, blood calcium, and blood glucose (p = 0.025). Conclusion: This study shows that COVID-19 is a multi-organ systemic inflammatory viral disease that should be systematically investigated once the diagnosis is confirmed.