Diabetes mellitus and hypertension as risk factors of acute kidney injury induced by COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The search string used in our present study was adapted from Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) comprising: [Acute Kidney Injury] AND [(SARS-CoV-2) OR (COVID-19)] AND ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the severe complications of COVID-19. The two distinct medical conditions sharing similar comorbidities are diabetes and hypertension. However, the correlation between AKI and COVID-19 patients with diabetes and/or hypertension, has not been extensively discussed. This study aims to assess the risk factors of AKI induced by COVID-19, using a meta-analysis approach. METHODS A meta-analysis was carried out by reviewing the latest relevant studies on online databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline, up to 21 March 2022. The required information related to hypertension and diabetes as the potential risk factors of AKI induced by COVID-19, was extracted. The association was analyzed using pooled odds ratio (OR) and a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). RESULTS We analyzed 29 studies consisting of 10698 AKI patients with COVID-19 and 20917 controls. Our results show that patients with diabetes (OR=1.5442; 95% CI: 1.3652–1.7467, p<0.0001, pHet (heterogeneity test)=0.0001, pE (Egger test)=0.8074) and hypertension (OR=1.7921; 95% CI: 1.5091–2.1281, p<0.0001, pHet<0.0001, pE=0.2182) had higher odds to develop AKI when infected with COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes and hypertension are prominent risk factors of acute kidney injury induced by COVID-19.