Zinc levels of patients with a moderate to severe COVID-19 infection at hospital admission and after 4th days of ward hospitalization and their clinical outcome.

Background: Previous studies associate the disturbance of the Zinc (Zn) status with the severity of the disease and the inflammatory process in the critically ill patient. This decrease in Zn concentrations is an indicator of poor prognosis. Our aim was to evaluate Zn levels at admission and after four days, and to study if lower Zn levels at those days were related to a worse clinical outcome.

Biological variation and reference change values of common clinical chemistry and haematologic laboratory analytes in the elderly population.

Background: Biological variation (BV) and reference change values (RCVs) have been widely described for the general population, but the use of these data derived from adults in the elderly population is a controversial issue. We determined the within- and between-subject BV and RCV in both elderly and young people and compared them with previously published analyses.

Methods: Samples were collected from 135 volunteers over 80 years of age at weekly intervals over 4 weeks.