The Association of Serum Calcium and Risk of Morbidity and Mortality in ICUAdmitted Patients

Abstract

Hamid Reza Samimagham, Ali Salimi Asl, Fatemeh Khajavi Mayvan, Elham Boushehri, Azadeh Moradkhani, Mitra Kazemi Jahromi

Background: Calcium is one of the essential electrolytes in humans, and hypocalcemia is one of the most common disorders in surgical and internal medicine patients requiring ICU. Therefore, we decided to investigate the clinical relationship of calcium level with the rate of mortality and related morbidities, such as sepsis, various organ failures, the need for mechanical ventilation, and the length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: A total of 61 patients admitted to the ICU of Shahid Mohammadi Hospital from 2019 to 2020 were included in the study. After collecting information related to calcium deficiency, patients' mortality, the need for mechanical ventilation and the duration of mechanical ventilation, serum albumin, magnesium, and potassium level, and SOFA and APACHE II prognostic scoring systems; the data were entered into SPSS software and subjected to statistical analysis.

Results: Out of 61 patients included in the present research, 37 were women, and 24 were men. In our study, 26.1% of the patients died during hospitalization, and 34.8% needed mechanical ventilation, which was a significant number. Serum calcium level was significant in the examined sepsis and kidney failure patients, but no other significant item was observed in the other patients, including COVID-19 patients. There was a significant relationship between serum calcium level in the studied patients with serum albumin level and SOFA score, but there was no significant relationship between the duration of hospitalization and the need for a ventilator, calcium and potassium serum level and their APACHE score (P-value >0.05). In addition, the serum level of magnesium in the studied patients had no significant relationship with any of the variables of mortality, sepsis, liver and kidney failure, and the need for mechanical ventilation.

Conclusions: This study showed a significant relationship between serum calcium level with serum albumin level and SOFA score.There was no significant relationship between serum calcium level with the duration of hospitalization, the need for a ventilator, and the APACHE score. Also, the serum calcium level was not significant for any of the parameters in COVID-19 patients.

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