A biological variation-based approach to the day-to-day changes of D-dimer, Fibrinogen, and Ferritin levels that are crucial in the clinical course of COVID-19 in healthy smokers and non-smokers

  1. Aydın Balci
  2. Muhammed Emin Düz
  3. Elif Menekşe

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Abstract

Objective

D-dimer, ferritin, and fibrinogen parameters in COVID-19 patients are essential, particularly in inpatients and intensive care unit patients. It is vital to know the changes that occur due to the biological structure of the person than the disease effect in these tests in order to manage the fatal disease better.

Method

Blood samples were taken on the first, third, and fifth days from 30 healthy volunteers, 15 of whom were smokers, 15 were non-smokers, and D-dimer, ferritin, and fibrinogen tests were studied with repeated measurements. After the data processed for normality and homogeneity and removing extreme values, CV A , CV I , CV G , CV T , RCV, II, I%, B%, TE% values were calculated via a full nested ANOVA design, according to Callum G, Fraser, and EFLM.

Results

CV I and CV G values of D-dimer were calculated as 49.07% and 40.69% for all individuals, 49.26% and 27.71% for smokers, 48.80% and 51.67% for non-smokers, respectively. In terms of fibrinogen, the same analyzes for all individuals were calculated as 11.18% and 10.62%, 3.25% and 20.17% for smokers, 9.11% and 6.79% for non-smokers, respectively. The same analyzes for ferritin were calculated as 23.74% and 63.31% for all individuals, 34.98% and 35.24% for smokers, 30.53% and 74.87% for non-smokers, respectively.

Conclusion

Changes in D-dimer measurements every other day in healthy individuals can be observed depending on the biological characteristics of the individuals, and the population-based reference interval may be insufficient for clinical evaluation. Each individual should be evaluated within himself/herself. When evaluating the results of ferritin and fibrinogen in non-smoking individuals, it should be taken into account that significant differences may occur between individuals. Besides, it should be kept in mind that there may be significant changes due to biological variation in the repeated measurements of ferritin every other day.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.24.21265444: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Informed consent was obtained from individuals.
    IRB: Amasya University ethics committee approval was taken for the study.
    Sex as a biological variableThose who had COVID-19, pregnant women, and regular medication were also excluded from the study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analyses were made using Excel 2016 (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, Washington, USA) and Minitab 19 (Minitab Ltd.,
    Excel
    suggested: None
    Minitab
    suggested: (Minitab, RRID:SCR_014483)

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.10.24.21265444v1 on medRxiv