Correlation analysis between disease severity and inflammation-related parameters in patients with COVID-19: a retrospective study

  1. Jing Gong
  2. Hui Dong
  3. Qing-Song Xia
  4. Zhao-yi Huang
  5. Ding-kun Wang
  6. Yan Zhao
  7. Wen-hua Liu
  8. Sheng-hao Tu
  9. Ming-min Zhang
  10. Qi Wang
  11. Fu-er Lu

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Abstract

Background

COVID-19 is highly contagious, and the crude mortality rate could reach 49% in critical patients. Inflammation concerns on disease progression. This study analyzed blood inflammation indicators among mild, severe and critical patients, helping to identify severe or critical patients early.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, 100 patients were included and divided into mild, severe or critical groups according to disease condition. Correlation of peripheral blood inflammation-related indicators with disease criticality was analyzed. Cut-off values for critically ill patients were speculated through the ROC curve.

Results

Significantly, disease severity was associated with age ( R  = -0.564, P  < 0.001), interleukin-2 receptor (IL2R) ( R  = -0.534, P  < 0.001), interleukin-6 (IL-6) ( R  = -0.535, P  < 0.001), interleukin-8 (IL-8) ( R  = -0.308, P  < 0.001), interleukin-10 (IL-10) ( R  = -0.422, P  < 0.001), tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) ( R  = -0.322, P  < 0.001), C-reactive protein (CRP) ( R  = -0.604, P  < 0.001), ferroprotein ( R  = -0.508, P  < 0.001), procalcitonin ( R  = -0.650, P  < 0.001), white cell counts (WBC) ( R  = -0.54, P  < 0.001), lymphocyte counts (LC) ( R  = 0.56, P  < 0.001), neutrophil count (NC) ( R  = -0.585, P  < 0.001) and eosinophil counts (EC) ( R  = 0.299, P  < 0.001). With IL2R > 793.5 U/mL or CRP > 30.7 ng/mL, the progress of COVID-19 to critical stage should be closely observed and possibly prevented.

Conclusions

Inflammation is closely related to severity of COVID-19, and IL-6 and TNFα might be promising therapeutic targets.

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  1. Version published to 10.1186/s12879-020-05681-5
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.02.25.20025643: (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
    Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    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.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.02.25.20025643 on medRxiv