Although the fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (F/R ratio) has been used as an inflammation marker to predict clinical outcomes in patients with cardiovascular diseases, its association with the prognosis of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear.Electronic databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Chai Tea Library were searched from inception to 20 June 2022.The associations of F/R ratio with poor prognosis (defined as the occurrence of mortality or severe disease) were investigated in patients with COVID-19.A total of 10 studies (seven from Turkey, two from China, one from Croatia) involving 3675 patients published between 2020 and 2022 were eligible for quantitative syntheses.
Merged Elbow Support results revealed a higher F/R ratio in the poor prognosis group (standardized mean difference: 0.529, p < 0.001, I2 = 84.8%, eight studies) than that in the good prognosis group.
In addition, a high F/R ratio was associated with an increased risk of poor prognosis (odds ratio: 2.684, I2 = 59.5%, five studies).Pooled analysis showed a sensitivity of 0.
75, specificity of 0.66, and area under curve of 0.77 for poor prognosis prediction.In conclusion, this meta-analysis revealed a positive correlation between F/A ratio and poor prognostic outcomes of COVID-19.
Because of the limited number of studies included, further investigations are warranted to support our findings.