Comparison of Oral Anticoagulant Users with Non-users Admission Laboratory Parameters, Length of Hospital Stay and Outcomes in COVID-19 Infection

Objective: We aimed to investigate the effect of oral anticoagulant (OA) use during coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) on early admission laboratory parameters and/or length of hospital stay in patients receiving chronic OA medication.
Material and Methods: This retrospective study included two groups; group 1 (n=62) consisted of OA users, and group 2 (n=75) of age and sex-matched OA non-users at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Early admission laboratory measures, numbers of comorbidities, length of hospital stay, and outcomes of patients were recorded and analyzed.
Results: Despite higher comorbidities in group 1, serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer levels were significantly lower than group 2 (p<0.05, all). The mortality rate was higher in group 2 but did not reach statistical significance (p>0.05). Regression analysis showed that OA users (compared to OA non-users) had 0.980 and 0.520 times lower serum CRP and D-dimer levels, respectively.
Conclusion: This study showed a beneficial effect of OA use on early admission serum CRP, and D-dimer levels, which are important prognostic predictors of COVID-19. Additionally, OA use is associated with fewer hospital stays for COVID-19 patients. These beneficial effects of OA use might help improve the management of this infection after further studies in this field.

Keywords: Anticoagulant, COVID-19, C-reactive protein, D-dimer, length of hospital stay, outcome