Serum Procalcitonin Level and Comorbidity in Covid-19 Patients in UAE

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sara Ali, Reem Ali, Salma Elnour, Hasan Higazi, Ahmed L. Osman, Marwan Ismail, Abdelgadir Alamin Altoum, Ayman Hussien Alfeel, Praveen Kumar Kandakurti, Salah Eldin Omar Hussein

 
International Journal of Biomedicine. 2022;12(4):627-630.
DOI: 10.21103/Article12(4)_OA19
Originally published December 5, 2022

Abstract: 

Background: Most COVID-19 patients experience a mild form of the disease, but there is a certain percentage of patients who progress to a very severe disease state that requires intensive care and invasive ventilation. In order to ensure better patient management and improved outcomes, early identification of patients who may be at a higher risk of severe infection can play an important role. The aim of this study was to assess the association between the mean procalcitonin (PCT) level and comorbidity in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Methods and Results: A total of 231 COVID-19-positive patients aged between 20 and 82 years (170[73.6 %] males and 61[26.4%] females) were included in this study. Serum PCT was accessed by procalcitonin assay using the Beckman Coulter UniCel DxI 800 instrument. Eighty-seven (37.7%) patients had no chronic disease, while 144(62.3%) had comorbidities: hypertension (37[16.0%]), diabetes mellitus (44[19.0%]), a combination of diabetes mellitus with hypertension (32[13.9%]), asthma (6[2.6%]), hyperlipidemia (4[1.7%]), renal disease (1[0.4%]), and COPD (1[0.4%]). COVID-19 patients with diabetes in combination with hypertension had a statistically greater PCT level than COVID-19 patients without comorbidities (P=0.0273). However, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean PCT level between different age categories (P=0 .7390). The serum PCT measurement could evaluate the prognosis of the disease in some COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: 
procalcitonin • COVID-19 • comorbidity
References: 

1. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Available at: https://covid19.who.int/
2. Mallah SI, Ghorab OK, Al-Salmi S, Abdellatif OS, Tharmaratnam T, Iskandar MA, Sefen JAN, Sidhu P, Atallah B, El-Lababidi R, Al-Qahtani M. COVID-19: breaking down a global health crisis. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 2021 May 18;20(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12941-021-00438-7.
3. Sanyaolu A, Okorie C, Marinkovic A, Patidar R, Younis K, Desai P, Hosein Z, Padda I, Mangat J, Altaf M. Comorbidity and its Impact on Patients with COVID-19. SN Compr Clin Med. 2020;2(8):1069-1076. doi: 10.1007/s42399-020-00363-4.
4. Langer-Gould A, Smith JB, Gonzales EG, Castillo RD, Figueroa JG, Ramanathan A, Li BH, Gould MK. Early identification of COVID-19 cytokine storm and treatment with anakinra or tocilizumab. Int J Infect Dis. 2020 Oct;99:291-297. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.07.081.
5. Lippi G, Plebani M. Procalcitonin in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A meta-analysis. Clin Chim Acta. 2020 Jun;505:190-191. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2020.03.004.
6. de la Rica R, Borges M, Gonzalez-Freire M. COVID-19: In the Eye of the Cytokine Storm. Front Immunol. 2020 Sep 24;11:558898. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.558898.
7. Gao Z, Xu Y, Sun C, Wang X, Guo Y, Qiu S, Ma K. A systematic review of asymptomatic infections with COVID-19. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2021 Feb;54(1):12-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2020.05.001.
8. Hu R, Han C, Pei S, Yin M, Chen X. Procalcitonin levels in COVID-19 patients. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Aug;56(2):106051. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106051.
9. Sanyaolu A, Okorie C, Marinkovic A, Patidar R, Younis K, Desai P, Hosein Z, Padda I, Mangat J, Altaf M. Comorbidity and its Impact on Patients with COVID-19. SN Compr Clin Med. 2020;2(8):1069-1076. doi: 10.1007/s42399-020-00363-4.
10. Schuetz P, Beishuizen A, Broyles M, Ferrer R, Gavazzi G, Gluck EH, González Del Castillo J, Jensen JU, Kanizsai PL, Kwa ALH, Krueger S, Luyt CE, Oppert M, Plebani M, Shlyapnikov SA, Toccafondi G, Townsend J, Welte T, Saeed K. Procalcitonin (PCT)-guided antibiotic stewardship: an international experts consensus on optimized clinical use. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2019 Aug 27;57(9):1308-1318. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2018-1181.
11. Standage SW, Wong HR. Biomarkers for pediatric sepsis and septic shock. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2011 Jan;9(1):71-9. doi: 10.1586/eri.10.154.
12. Zhu J, Ji P, Pang J, Zhong Z, Li H, He C, Zhang J, Zhao C. Clinical characteristics of 3062 COVID-19 patients: A meta-analysis. J Med Virol. 2020 Oct;92(10):1902-1914. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25884.
13. Yang X, Yu Y, Xu J, Shu H, Xia J, Liu H, Wu Y, Zhang L, Yu Z, Fang M, Yu T, Wang Y, Pan S, Zou X, Yuan S, Shang Y. Clinical course and outcomes of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study. Lancet Respir Med. 2020 May;8(5):475-481. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30079-5. Epub 2020 Feb 24. Erratum in: Lancet Respir Med. 2020 Apr;8(4):e26.
14. Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, Qu J, Gong F, Han Y, Qiu Y, Wang J, Liu Y, Wei Y, Xia J, Yu T, Zhang X, Zhang L. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020 Feb 15;395(10223):507-513. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30211-7.

Download Article
Received September 3, 2022.
Accepted October 10, 2022.
©2022 International Medical Research and Development Corporation.