The Impact of Dialysis Sessions on Blood Levels of D-dimer among Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Infected with COVID-19

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a real challenge to our communities worldwide, exerting a high socioeconomic impact. The disease is associated with a great deal of co-agulation cascade disorder, with a considerable increase in D-dimer concentration in blood. Objec-tives: To assess the impact of dialysis session frequency on blood levels of D-dimer among CKD pa-tients infected with COVID-19. Patients and Methods: The study included 40 CKD patients (22 males and 18 females) infected with COVID-19, who attended the Artificial Kidney Unit at Al Hus-sein Teaching Hospital, Thi-Qar, Iraq for regular dialysis. They were divided into two groups; Group I: 20 CKD patients who had COVID-19. They underwent one hemodialysis session per week. The second group, which included 20 CKD patients infected with COVID-19 underwent three dial-ysis sessions per week. Plasma levels of D-dimer were measured one day before the start of the study and one day after three weeks in both groups. Results: The results of the present study re-vealed that CKD patients infected with COVID-19 who underwent three dialysis session per week (Group II) had a significant drop in blood D-dimer level at the end of three weeks in comparison to the initial values. Furthermore, the decrease in blood D-dimer level was significantly higher among CKD patients with COVID-19 who underwent three dialysis sessions per week (Group II) in com-parison to COVID-19 infected CKD patients who underwent single dialysis sessions per week (Group I). Conclusions: CKD patients with COVID-19 have an elevated blood level of D-dimer. In-creasing the frequency of hemodialysis plays an essential role in lowering the serum D-dimer level among these patients.