Title : Onodera’s prognostic nutritional index: Comparison of its role in severity and outcomes of COVID-19 patients among the periods of alpha, delta and omicron variant predominance
Abstract:
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a severe worldwide public health threat, affecting multiple organs' function in addition to respiratory function. Several strains of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been circulating around the world since it first arose, with some of them having the ability to escape from natural or vaccine-mediated immunity. The Onodera’s prognostic nutritional index (OPNI), which is derived from peripheral lymphocyte count and serum albumin, has been reported to significantly correlate with poor survival and postoperative complications in patients with various diseases and in a few studies of COVID-19 patients. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate and compare the OPNI's role as a prognostic indicator in COVID-19 patients among the periods of alpha, delta, and omicron variant predominance. Adult patients who visited or were hospitalized in the COVID-19 Unit of Laiko General Hospital due to SARS-CoV-2 infection were included, covering the second, third (alpha variant), fourth (delta variant), and fifth (omicron variant) pandemic waves. According to our results, the OPNI had a statistically significant difference among patients with mild/moderate, severe and critical disease, with the lowest values observed in patients with critical disease in all studied pandemic waves. Moreover, OPNI was found to be an independent prognostic biomarker of intubation and death in COVID-19 patients, according to multivariate logistic regression analysis, including as confounders age>65 years, male gender, and the presence of comorbidities in all studied periods.
Audience take-away:
- This presentation reveals factors associated with poor outcomes in patients hospitalized due to COVID-19, covering all the pandemic waves.
- More specifically, this study underlines that the Onodera’s prognostic nutritional index is the only independent prognosticator of poor outcomes in all pandemic waves and is associated with the disease severity.
- This data could be used to to identify patients at a greater risk for developing severe and critical COVID-19.
