Severe COVID patients at higher risk from kidney issues: Study
People who suffer a severe case of COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from acute kidney injury, a new study by London scientists suggests.
Author of the article:Jennifer Bieman
Publishing date:Mar 14, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read
Lawson Research Institute in London is shown in this Free Press file photo.
Lawson Research Institute in London is shown in this Free Press file photo.
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People who suffer a severe case of COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from acute kidney injury, a new study by London scientists suggests.
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The condition, also known as acute renal failure, occurs when a patient’s kidneys are no longer able to filter waste products from their blood, affecting its chemical composition.
While the kidney complication is rare in the overall population of patients with COVID-19, affecting about one in 1,000 in the first two waves of the pandemic, it’s much more common – affecting about one in 10 – among COVID patients who ended up in intensive care.
Of those patients in critical care, 64 per cent died within 90 days, according to the study, published in the Clinical Kidney Journal.
“Unfortunately, the mortality is horrible with this condition,” said Dr. Peter Blake, a Lawson Health Research Institute scientist and provincial medical director at the Ontario Renal Network.
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“About a third of these patients were alive after 90 days, but of those people, a third were still in hospital. One fifth were still on dialysis. They didn’t die, but they were still awfully sick people.”
Many patients who developed acute renal failure had no kidney disease or issues before contracting COVID-19, Blake said.
The study suggested men were at higher risk than women of developing the COVID complication, making up more than 75 per cent of cases.
Half of the acute renal failure patients were also diabetic and most were middle-aged, the study said. Mean age of the study group was 65, with 10 per cent under 50, Blake said.
“Almost 60 per cent of these patients lived in the 20 per cent of postal codes in Ontario . . . where there are a lot of people who are new to Canada and who have low incomes,” Blake said.
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“People who had that combination of being non-Caucasian and living in areas that are relatively socioeconomically less well off were more likely to develop this complication.”
The study analyzed data collected through the Ontario Renal Network, including from 271 patients at 27 Ontario renal programs who received acute dialysis after contracting the virus. London Health Sciences Centre was one of the 27 centres.
While the study only captures COVID-related renal failure in the first two waves of the pandemic, the number of patients with the condition in Ontario now has surpassed 700, Blake said.
“Even Omicron, which in most people is very mild, is causing this complication. At a lower rate, but it’s still causing it. There were another 50 to 100 people who got this complication over the last three months,” he said.
Lawson researchers said they now will focus on patients who survived the kidney condition and track any long-term complications stemming from the virus.
“Some of the survivors are ending up . . . stuck on dialysis,” Blake said. “Some may get off dialysis, but their kidneys won’t be normal in the years ahead and they’ll end up on dialysis again.”
With files by Jonathan Juha, The London Free Press
jbieman@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/JenatLFPress
People who suffer a severe case of COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from acute kidney injury, a new study by London scientists suggests.
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