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Elevation of d-dimer, but not pt and aptt, reflects the progression of covid-19 toward an unfavorable outcome: A meta-analysis
Bashash D, Abolghasemi H, Salari S, Olfatifar M, Eshghi P, Akbari ME
Iranian Journal of Blood and Cancer. 2020
Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated as COVID-19) is a mysterious respiratory syndrome symptomatically spanning from healthy carriers to patients with life-threatening complications, in some cases, leading to a mournful death For the time being, the contributory role of hematologists is much more recognized in the management of COVID-19, since the emergence of coagulopathy has recently been the focus of many studies in SARS-CoV-2 infection Methods: To provide a well-conceptualized viewpoint demonstrating the prognostic value of coagulation-related laboratory tests, we planned to perform a meta-analysis of pertinent literature representing information on PT, aPTT, and D-dimer tests in patients with COVID-19 Results: Albeit the estimated pooled means of PT and aPTT were higher in severe cases, their mean values were not significantly higher as compared with patients in a non-severe condition On the other hand, the mean value of D-dimer in severe patients was significantly higher than non-severe cases (X2=6 34, P=0 01), highlighting that the elevation of this parameter may be associated with the progression of the disease toward an unfavorable clinical outcome Conclusion: Even though at the time of writing this article the lack of adequate and appropriate studies denotes a major limitation to the current study, planning for the future research to determine the prognostic value of laboratory tests reflecting SARS-CoV-2-induced coagulopathy, mainly D-dimer, will definitively cast a flash of light on the significance of therapeutic anticoagulation at least for those with no absolute contraindication