Association of inflammatory markers with the severity of COVID-19: A meta-analysis

  1. Furong Zeng
  2. Yuzhao Huang
  3. Ying Guo
  4. Mingzhu Yin
  5. Xiang Chen
  6. Liang Xiao
  7. Guangtong Deng

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.05.055
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.14.20065680: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Original studies reporting COVID-19 were searched until March 20, 2020 through PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wanfang database and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) database.
    PubMed
    suggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)
    Embase
    suggested: (EMBASE, RRID:SCR_001650)
    Cochrane Library
    suggested: (Cochrane Library, RRID:SCR_013000)
    Statistical analysis: All the statistical analyses were carried out by STATA (Version 12.0; STATA Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) software.
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Admittedly, our meta-analysis had some limitations. Firstly, noticeable heterogeneity exists in most of the analyses. Sensitivity analysis and SMD were used for the meta-analysis, yet the heterogeneity could not be eliminated completely. Secondly, reporting and publication bias may result from the lack of information or unpublished negative studies though the conclusion did not change through the trim-and-fill method. Thirdly, the studies included in our meta- analysis were mainly from China and whether the conclusion was consistent in other countries needs to be further investigated. Finally, it is underpowered to investigate the underlying mechanism of these inflammatory markers with the severity of COVID-19. In conclusion, inflammatory markers especially CRP, PCT, IL-6 and ESR were positively correlated with the severity of COVID-19. The association of SAA and serum ferritin with the severity of COVID-19 needs further clarified. Measurement of inflammatory markers might help clinicians to monitor and evaluate the severity and prognosis of COVID-19.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.14.20065680 on medRxiv