Page 33 - JCTR-11-1

Journal of Clinical and

Translational Research

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Dexamethasone in critical coronavirus

disease-2019 cases: Insights from a
cross-sectional study

Sayuri Rocha Yamashita , Vera Lúcia Milani Martins ,
1
2
3
Victor Iury Soares Santos Patrício , Lúcia de Araújo Costa Beisl Noblat 1 ,
and Francine Johansson Azeredo *
4

1 Department of Medicine, Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Services and Policies, Federal
University of Bahia, Salvador - Bahia, Brazil
2 Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul. R. Cel. Vicente, Porto
Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
3 Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Santa Izabel, Salvador - Bahia, Brazil
4 Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, Department of Pharmaceutics Lake
Nona (Orlando), University of Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States of America

Abstract
*Corresponding author: Objective: The objective of the study is to describe the clinical and laboratory
Francine Johansson Azeredo characteristics of critically ill coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients treated
(francinej@ufl.edu)
with dexamethasone in an intensive care unit (ICU) to provide a support tool for clinical
Citation: Yamashita SR, decision-making. Design: A survey was conducted among hospitalized patients
Martins VLM, Patrício VISS,
Noblat LACB, Azeredo FJ. from November 2020 to March 2021, with data collected through patient interviews,
Dexamethasone in critical medical records, and laboratory tests. Setting: This is a large hospital serving as a
coronavirus disease-2019 cases: reference center for COVID-19 care in Bahia, Brazil. Patients: A convenience sample
Insights from a cross-sectional
study. J Clin Transl Res. of 22 patients admitted to the COVID-19 ICU who signed informed consent to
2025;11(1):27-33. participate in the study. Methods: A cross-sectional study of patients admitted to the
doi: 10.36922/jctr.24.00036 ICU with COVID-19. Data were analyzed using statistical methods. Results: The most
Received: July 2, 2024 common comorbidities among patients were hypertension (54%), diabetes (36%),
and cardiovascular disease (27%). Among the deaths recorded, 55% of patients
1st revised: September 19, 2024
had hypertension, 44% had diabetes and/or required insulin therapy, 33% had a
2nd revised: October 24, 2024 history of cardiovascular disease (including atrial fibrillation and congestive heart
Accepted: January 8, 2025 failure), and 22% had a history of stroke. Renal dysfunction (elevated creatinine);
liver function abnormalities (increased alanine aminotransferase and aspartate
Published online: February 5,
2025 aminotransferase); and elevated levels of ferritin, fibrinogen, and D-dimer were
identified as potential indicators of disease progression. Among these factors, only
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an open-access article elevated creatinine demonstrated a statistically significant association with an
distributed under the terms of the increased mortality risk. Conclusion: These findings provide a better understanding
Creative Commons AttributionNon- of the clinical course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections
Commercial 4.0 International (CC
BY-NC 4.0), which permits all and suggest that laboratory medicine is crucial in supporting clinical decision-
non-commercial use, distribution, making and advancing scientific and healthcare knowledge during the early phases
and reproduction in any medium, of the COVID-19 pandemic. Relevance for patients: Identifying key risk factors, such
provided the original work is
properly cited. as renal dysfunction, can improve early intervention and personalized treatment for
critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Keywords: Intensive care unit; SARS-COV-2; Hospitalized patients; Clinical and laboratory
affiliations features

Volume 11 Issue 1 (2025) 27 doi: 10.36922/jctr.24.00036