The severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a multifactorial condition. Cardiac and acute kidney injury (AKI) are two complications commonly reported in severe forms of COVID-19. We aimed to investigate the effect of these tow complications on the COVID-19 in-hospital mortality.

This is a prospective study, including 120 severe cases of COVID-19, admitted at the university hospital of Blida. Troponin was assessed by an immuno-fluoroassay method. AKI was defined according to the KDIGO-2012 guidelines. The association with in-hospital mortality was assessed using the Kaplan–Meier survival curve, proportional Cox regression analyses and the receiver operating characteristic curve.

Cardiac and acute kidney injury were very common, occurring in 19% and 25% of patients. When analyzing survival, both were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality (p_LogRank<0.0001). A cutoff value of 9.6ng/mL for troponin and 13.9mg/L for creatinine could predict poor prognosis with a sensitivity of 73% and 67%, and a specificity of 62% and 64%, respectively. Hazard ratios were (HR=3.5, 95% CI [1.7–7.3], P=0.001 and HR=3.14, 95% CI [1.6–6.1], P=0.001) for troponin cutoff and AKI respectively.

This study demonstrates the high frequency of cardiac and acute kidney injury in severe COVID-19 patients and provides further evidence of their potential link to poor short-term prognosis.