Correlation Analysis Between Disease Severity and Inflammation-related Parameters in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia

Gong, Jing; Dong, Hui; Xia, Song Qing; Huang, Yi Zhao; Wang, Dingkun; Zhao, Yan; Liu, Wenhua; Tu, Shenghao; Zhang, Mingmin; Wang, Qi; Lu, Fuer

Aim: The new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreaking at the end of 2019 is highly contagious. Crude mortality rate reached 49% in critical patients. Inflammation matters 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 to mild, severe or critical groups. 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 were 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=0.01). Conclusion：With following parameters such as age >67.5 years, IL2R >793.5U/mL, CRP >30.7ng/mL, ferroprotein >2252μg/L, WBC>9.5*10^9/L or NC >7.305*10^9/L, the progress of COVID-19 to critical stage should be closely observed and possibly prevented. Inflammation is closely related to severity of COVID-19, and IL-6, TNFα and IL-8 might be promising therapeutic targets.