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Background: Severe COVID-19 has a poor prognosis, and biomarkers may predict disease severity. This study aimed to assess the effect of baseline Vitamin D (VitD) inadequacy on outcome of patients with severe COVID-19 admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) in a tertiary hospital in South Africa., Methods: Patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 were recruited during wave II of the pandemic in Cape Town. Eighty-six patients were included in the study. They were categorized into three groups "VitD deficient, VitD insufficient and VitD sufficient". We combined the VitD deficient with insufficient group to form "VitD inadequate'' group. Cox regression analysis was done to assess the association between VitD status and mortality. Factors with p< 0.05 in adjusted multivariable cox regression were considered statistically significant., Results: The proportion of VitD inadequacy was 64% (55/86), with significantly higher proportion of hypertension (66%; p 0.012). Kaplan Meir curve showed no significant difference in the probability of survival among the COVID-19 patients admitted in the ICU with or without VitD inadequacy. However, patients with elevated serum creatinine were significantly more at risk of dying (Adjusted Hazard Ratio 1.008 (1.002 - 1.030, p<0.017)., Conclusion: Our study found a high prevalence of VitD inadequacy (combined deficiency and insufficiency) in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. This may indicate a possible risk of severe disease. Whilst there was no statistically significant relationship between VitD status and mortality in this cohort, baseline VitD may be an important prognostic biomarker in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU, particularly in those with comorbidities that predispose to VitD deficiency., Competing Interests: No conflict of interest declared, (© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.)

Background: Data on biochemical markers and their association with mortality rates in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. An evaluation of baseline routine biochemical parameters was performed in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU, in order to identify prognostic biomarkers., Methods: Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were collected prospectively from patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to the adult ICU of a tertiary hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, between October 2020 and February 2021. Robust Poisson regression methods and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to explore the association of biochemical parameters with severity and mortality., Results: A total of 82 patients (median age 53.8 years, interquartile range 46.4-59.7 years) were enrolled, of whom 55 (67%) were female and 27 (33%) were male. The median duration of ICU stay was 10 days (interquartile range 5-14 days); 54/82 patients died (66% case fatality rate). Baseline lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (adjusted relative risk 1.002, 95% confidence interval 1.0004-1.004; P  = 0.016) and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) (adjusted relative risk 1.0004, 95% confidence interval 1.0001-1.0007; P  = 0.014) were both found to be independent risk factors of a poor prognosis, with optimal cut-off values of 449.5 U/l (sensitivity 100%, specificity 43%) and 551 pg/ml (sensitivity 49%, specificity 86%), respectively., Conclusions: LDH and NT-proBNP appear to be promising predictors of a poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients in the ICU. Studies with a larger sample size are required to confirm the validity of this combination of biomarkers., Competing Interests: No conflict of interest declared., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.)