Sarmad Zahoor, Uzma Malik, Malik Muhammad Atif, Sadia Asif, Aleena Khan, Sumera Hanif, Ibrar Rafique, Muhammad Arif Nadeem Saqib.
Frequency of Hypokalemia, Clinical Implications and Risk Factors in patients of COVID-19.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;62(4):148-52.

Objective: To determine the frequency of hypokalemia among COVID-19 patients and assess its impact on the patients management. Study type, settings & duration: It was a cross-sectional study conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore from July 2020 to January 2021.   Methodology: A total of 212 SARS-COV-2 positive patients who had developed severe disease were enrolled. Based on the level of potassium, the patients were classified as mild, moderate and severe hypokalemia cases. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire including demography, clinical presentations and medication including use of anticoagulant and steroids. Results: Of the total 210, 46 (21.9%) patients had hypokalemia and among them 23 (11%) showed mild, 17 (8.1%) moderate and 6 (2.9%) severe hypokalemia. Out of 210, 17 (23.9%) patients were treated with hydrocortisone, 11 (17.4%) with methylprednisolone and 18 (23.3%) with dexamethasone and no significant difference was seen in development of hypokalemia (p =0.630). Similarly, 39 (21.4%) patients were given enoxaparin and 7 (24.1%) were given heparin, but no significant association was found between the type of anticoagulant being given and hypokalemia (p =0.754). No significant difference was observed with respect to gender in the development of hypokalemia (p =0.782). Conclusion: This study showed that hypokalemia was a significant clinical manifestation among SARS-COV-2 patients. Further it was noted that treatment regime used for COVID-19 management and gender of the patients are not a risk factor for developing the hypokalemia.

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