A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of D-Dimer Levels in Patients Hospitalized with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Abstract AimTo determine if the d-dimer levels are elevated in individuals with COVID 19 having worse clinical outcomes including all-cause mortality, ICU admission or ARDS MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature in Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane database through April 9, 2020 for studies evaluating the d-dimer levels in patients with and without a worse clinical outcome (all-cause mortality, ICU admission and ARDS). A total of 6 studies included in the meta-analysis. ResultsThe values of d-dimer were found to be significantly increased in patients with the composite clinical end point than in those without (SMD, 1.67 ug/ml (95% CI, 0.72-2.62 ug/ml). The SMD of the studies (Tang et al, Zhou et al, Chen et al), which used only mortality as an outcome measure was 2.5 ug/mL (95% CI, 0.62-4.41). ConclusionThe results of this concise meta-analysis suggest that d-dimer is significantly increased in patients having a worse clinical outcome (all-cause mortality, ICU admission or ARDS).