RESULTS
A total of 1378 patients, 687 of them mild and 691 of them severe, were included in the study. 678 of patients (%49.2) were women; 700 of patients were male. There were significant difference between mild and severe COVID-19 patients in terms of laboratory parameters. Kidney failure, diabetes mellitus, ischemic hepatitis, sepsis were clearly higher in patients with severe COVID-19. Amylase and lipase levels were also higher in patients with severe COVID-19. (Table 1)
Amylase elevation at different levels occured in 316 (%23) of 1378 patients with COVID-19. There were amylase elevations in 261 patients as much 1-3 times than normal and in 55 (%4) patients 3 times more than normal. Pancreatitis was detected in only 6 (%1.89) of these patients according to Atlanta criteria. Amylase and lipase elevation was found to related to severity of COVID-19 infection in the rest of all patients. And also diabetes mellitus, kidney failure, hypotension, ischemic hepatitis was found to related to mortality from COVID-19 infection. There were no relation between lymphopenia and elevated amylase levels. (Table-2) Those older than 65 years were more likely to have (1,89 times) elevated increased enzyme levels during the examination of causes of amylase and lipase elevation in COVID infection.
In addition, the rate of elevated amylase levels was 2.04 times higher in men than in women. In particular, hypotension (OR:6,63), sepsis (OR:6,20), ischemia related liver damage (OR:6,63) and renal failure (OR:5,18) were found to be significantly associated with pancreatic enzyme levels. (Table-3) There was a weak correlation between amylase level, age and gender in patients with Covid-19. Likewise, the presence of DM showed a weak but statistically significant correlation with the amylase level. The strongest correlation with the level of amylase was found to be related to the severity of Covid-19. Especially the presence of liver damage, renal failure, hypotension and MODS in these patients were correlated with amylase level. (Figure-1)