Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Dec 15, 2022; 13(12): 1154-1167
Published online Dec 15, 2022. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v13.i12.1154
Baseline moderate-range albuminuria is associated with protection against severe COVID-19 pneumonia
Amir Bashkin, Mona Shehadeh, Lina Shbita, Kamil Namoura, Ronza Haiek, Elena Kuyantseva, Yousef Boulos, Orly Yakir, Etty Kruzel-Davila
Amir Bashkin, Ronza Haiek, Elena Kuyantseva, Yousef Boulos, Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya 2210001, Israel
Amir Bashkin, Mona Shehadeh, Lina Shbita, Etty Kruzel-Davila, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Zefat 1311502, Israel
Mona Shehadeh, Clinical Laboratories Division, Clinical Biochemistry and Endocrinology Laboratory, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya 2210001, Israel
Kamil Namoura, Internal Medicine A, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya 2210001, Israel
Orly Yakir, Statistical Analysis Division, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya 2210001, Israel
Etty Kruzel-Davila, Department of Nephrology, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya 2210001, Israel
Author contributions: Bashkin A was the guarantor and designed the study, and was responsible for conceptualization, project administration, supervision, methodology, writing, review and editing; Shehadeh M and Shbita L were responsible for data curation and participated in formal analysis; Namoura K, Haiek R, Boulos Y, and Kuyantseva E participated in data curation; Yakir O was responsible for formal analysis; Kruzel-Davila E was responsible for methodology, formal analysis, writing, review and editing.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Helsinki Committee of the Galilee Medical Center.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared accordingly.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Amir Bashkin, MD, Director, Doctor, Researcher, Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Galilee Medical Center, Route 89, Nahariya 2210001, Israel. amirb@gmc.gov.il
Received: August 10, 2022
Peer-review started: August 10, 2022
First decision: October 5, 2022
Revised: October 18, 2022
Accepted: December 1, 2022
Article in press: December 1, 2022
Published online: December 15, 2022
Processing time: 119 Days and 20.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Type 2 diabetes mellitus and its risk factors are considered to be contributors to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we analyzed our single-center clinical data of adults with type 2 diabetes between September 2020 and May 2021 to determine the impact of risk factors on severity of COVID-19 pneumonia. Surprisingly, we found that moderate-range pre-hospitalization albuminuria was associated with reduced risk of severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Further studies are needed to explore this association and pathogenesis relating to immunomodulation, which may indicate a biomarker for patients at reduced risk for COVID-19-related deterioration that may translate to therapeutic interventions.