Clinical significance of prognostic nutrition index in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: Results from single-center experience with systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to ascertain risk indicators of in-hospital mortality and severity as well as to provide a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the prognostic significance of the prognostic nutrition index (PNI) as a predictor of adverse outcomes in hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we studied patients with COVID-19 who were referred to our hospital from February 16 to November 1, 2020. Patients with either a real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test that was positive for COVID-19 or high clinical suspicion based on the World Health Organization (WHO) interim guidance were enrolled. A parallel systematic review/meta-analysis (in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) was performed. RESULTS: A total of 504 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included in this study, among which 101 (20.04%) patients died during hospitalization, and 372 (73.81%) patients were categorized as severe cases. At a multivariable level, lower PNI, higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and higher D-dimer levels were independent risk indicators of in-hospital mortality. Additionally, patients with a history of diabetes, lower PNI, and higher LDH levels had a higher tendency to develop severe disease. The meta-analysis indicated the PNI as an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR] = 0.80; P < .001) and disease severity (OR = 0.78; P = .009). CONCLUSION: Our results emphasized the predictive value of the PNI in the prognosis of patients with COVID-19, necessitating the implementation of a risk stratification index based on PNI values in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.