Elevated Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) level as an independent risk factor for the severity and mortality of COVID-19
Li Chang, Jianfang Ye, Qijian Chen, Weihua Hu, Lingling Wang, Yameng Fan, Zhanjin Lu, Jie Chen, Zaishu Chen, Shiyan Chen, Junlu Tong, Wei Xiao, Jin Mei, Hongyun Lu
Abstract
Early identification of severe patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is very important for individual treatment. We included 203 patients with COVID-19 by propensity score matching in this retrospective, case-control study. The effects of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at admission on patients with COVID-19 were evaluated. We found that serum LDH levels had a 58.7% sensitivity and 82.0% specificity, based on a best cut-off of 277.00 U/L, for predicting severe COVID-19. And a cut-off of 359.50 U/L of the serum LDH levels resulted in a 93.8% sensitivity, 88.2% specificity for predicting death of COVID-19. Additionally, logistic regression analysis and Cox proportional hazards model respectively indicated that elevated LDH level was an independent risk factor for the severity (HR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.25-5.97; P=0.012) and mortality (HR: 40.50, 95% CI: 3.65-449.28; P=0.003) of COVID-19. Therefore, elevated LDH level at admission is an independent risk factor for the severity and mortality of COVID-19. LDH can assist in the early evaluating of COVID-19. Clinicians should pay attention to the serum LDH level at admission for patients with COVID-19.