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Review
. 2023 Nov;33(6):e2477.
doi: 10.1002/rmv.2477. Epub 2023 Sep 14.

Lactate dehydrogenase contribution to symptom persistence in long COVID: A pooled analysis

Raphael Udeh  1 , Alberto Utrero-Rico  2 , Xenia Dolja-Gore  3 , Masoud Rahmati  4   5 , Mark McEVoy  3   6 , Tony Kenna  7
Affiliations
Review

Lactate dehydrogenase contribution to symptom persistence in long COVID: A pooled analysis

Raphael Udeh et al. Rev Med Virol. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

There's critical need for risk predictors in long COVID. This meta-analysis evaluates the evidence for an association between plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and long COVID and explores the contribution of LDH to symptoms persistent across the distinct post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) domains. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for articles published up to 20 March 2023 for studies that reported data on LDH levels in COVID-19 survivors with and without PASC. Random-effect meta-analysis was employed to estimate the standardized mean difference (SMD) with corresponding 95% confidence interval of each outcome. There were a total of 8289 study participants (3338 PASC vs. 4951 controls) from 46 studies. Our meta-analysis compared to the controls showed a significant association between LDH elevation and Resp-PASC [SMD = 1.07, 95%CI = 0.72, 1.41, p = 0.01] but not Cardio-PASC [SMD = 1.79, 95%CI = -0.02, 3.61, p = 0.05], Neuro-PASC [SMD = 0.19, 95%CI = -0.24, 0.61, p = 0.40], and Gastrointestinal-PASC [SMD = 0.45, 95%CI = -1.08, 1.98, p = 0.56]. This meta-analysis suggests elevated LDH can be used for predicting Resp-PASC, but not Cardio-PASC, Neuro-PASC or gastrointestinal-PASC. Thus, elevated plasma LDH following COVID infection may be considered as a disease biomarker.

Keywords: PASC; lactate dehydrogenase; long COVID; pooled analysis; post-COVID-19 condition.

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References

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