Importance of Confirmatory Tests for Sars-Cov-2 Infection in Hemodialysis Patients: A Multicenter Mexican Registry.

Background: Since the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, patients with chronic kidney disease vulnerable to suffering more severe COVID-19 disease and worse outcomes have been identified.

Objectives: Our study's aim was to determine the incidence, characteristics, and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients of hemodialysis (HD) units in Mexico and to describe the availability of confirmatory testing.

Methods: This study was multicentric study of 19 HD units, conducted between March 2020 and March 2021.

Results: From a total of 5779 patients, 955 (16.5%) cases of suspicious COVID-19 were detected; a SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test was done in only 50.6% of patients. Forty-five percentages were hospitalized and 6% required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). There was no significant difference in mortality between confirmed (131/483) and suspicious (124/472) cases (p = 0.74). The percentage of patients in need of hospitalization, IMV, and deceased was greater than in the rest of the study population.

Conclusions: The study revealed that 49.4% of the cases were not confirmed, a worrisome observation given that this is a highly vulnerable population (higher probability of contagion and worse outcomes), in which 100% of patients should have a confirmatory test.