Covid-19 and kidney; a mini-review on current concepts and new data

Abstract

In late December 2019, some cases of acute respiratory illness occurred in Wuhan, Hubei province, China that caused by a virus named “severe acute respiratory syndrome 2” (SARS-Cov2). More susceptible patients to this disease are elderly male patients since these patients with comorbid diseases are disposed to severe infection and more death. The most important comorbid diseases with COVID-19 pneumonia are hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease. The most common symptoms of SARS-Cov2 infection are dyspnea, cough, fatigue, diarrhea and vomiting. High number of kidney disease in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has been reported. Furthermore, a large group of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had signs of kidney disease, with a high level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen that could be justified with different pathophysiologies happened in COVID-19 pneumonia. However, massive differences were found in the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia, since various studies have shown that AKI correlates with higher mortality rate, upper morbidity and more severe cases of illness. Therefore, we should be informed about the pathophysiology of AKI in COVID-19 pneumonia to find the modalities to decrease the incidence of AKI and subsequent decrease mortality and morbidity of this disease.

Keywords: COVID-19, Acute kidney injury, Acute respiratory distress syndrome, Acute lung injury, Chronic kidney disease, Multiple organ failure, Endstage renal disease