Raised D-dimer Level among COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Serum D-dimer is a protein fragment generated during the final phase of clot formation. Increased serum D-dimer levels indicate the hemostatic change in patients, likely related to the prothrombotic switch. As the world is battling with the damaging effect of coronavirus disease, it is very important to find out the early and effective predictors of prognosis to improve the management of COVID-19 patients. Thus, our study aims to find out the prevalence of increased D-dimer levels in coronavirus disease patients. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 235 patients admitted in the COVID ward and COVID Intensive Care Units at a tertiary care hospital from July 2020 to August 2021 after getting ethical approval (Reference number: 401/2020) from the Institutional Review Committee. A convenience sampling method was used for sample collection. The highest recorded values for D-dimer during the hospital stay were taken for data collection. The data were entered in Microsoft Excel 2013 and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency, proportion, mean and standard deviation. RESULTS: Among 235 patients, elevated D-dimer level was in 175 (74.46%) (68.88-80.04 at 95% Confidence Interval). Majority of the patients were males 136 (77.71%) whereas 39 (22.28%) of the patients were females. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of raised D-dimer levels was quite higher in our studies compared to other studies done in different parts of the world. Thus, serum D-dimer level may serve as an early marker in improving the management of patients with coronavirus disease.