key: cord-0861891-n1puynni
authors: Waris, Abdul; Din, Misbahud; Iqbal, Nouman; Yar, Lubna; Khalid, Atiqa; Nawaz, Mehboob; Baset, Abdul; Ali, Muhammad
title: Evaluation of serum procalcitonin level as a biomarker for disease severity in Covid-19 patients
date: 2021-07-24
journal: New Microbes New Infect
DOI: 10.1016/j.nmni.2021.100922
sha: 77dcc330012478ac4b2201752779223400f0728a
doc_id: 861891
cord_uid: n1puynni

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has infected millions of individuals around the globe. Forecasting the Covid-19 severity is essential and various biomarkers could be used to evaluate it. The current study was therefore aimed to evaluate the serum pro-calcitonin (PCT) level as a biomarkers for bacterial co-infection and disease severity in Covid-19 patients. A total of 430 Covid-19 positive individuals were examined in which 332 (77.2%) were male individuals while 98 (22.8%) were female individuals. Among the examined samples, 281 were classified as moderate (PCT value 0.07±0.06 ng/mL), 95 were severe (PCT value 0.5±0.4 ng/mL), and 54 were classified as critical (PCT value >1 ng/mL) individuals. The increase in total serum level of PCT was observed with the severity of disease (p<0.05). The statistical analysis represented no association of PCT value with gender (p value = 0.9650) while revealed a significant association (p value < 0.001) with of the age and PCT value in Covid-19 patients. It can be concluded that the serial PCT measurement could determine the prognosis of disease and presence of bacterial co-infection in Covid-19 patients. Further exploration of the topic is needed to evaluate the effect of different therapies on PCT level and to prescribe specific treatment options for coinfection.

. Due to its high contagion and transmission 35 rate, Covid-19 spread throughout the globe [10] . WHO first declared it a public health emergency 36 of international concern and then as a pandemic [11] . As of March 31, 2021, the WHO reported 37 127.3 million confirmed cases with 2.7 million mortalities around the globe [12] . 38 The forecasting of Covid-19 severity is essential in the current pandemic. The disease 39 severity could be evaluated by various laboratory markers including serum pro-calcitonin, C- All those individuals who were tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 according to the WHO and 79 CDC guidelines for the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in this study. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f patients. Chi-square test and one way ANOVA were applied to determine the association. 339 Significance of p<0.05 was considered at 95% confidence interval. AW and MD contributed to conceptualization and methodology. AW and MD, and AK contributed to data curation, writing and original draft preparation. LY, MN, and AB contributed to visualization and investigation. MA supervised the study and contributed to writing, reviewing and editing the paper.

The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the 209 COVID-19 pandemic

Note from the editors: World Health Organization 211 declares novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) sixth public health emergency of international 212 concern

C-reactive protein, procalcitonin

and ferritin in severe coronavirus disease-2019: a meta-analysis. Therapeutic 217 advances in respiratory disease

The role of procalcitonin as a biomarker 219 in sepsis

Clinical relevance of 221 procalcitonin values in bacteremia

Procalcitonin for diagnosing and monitoring bacterial infections: for 224 or against