Clinical and biomarker profile of covid-19 patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital

Bhat, A.; Mascarenhas, D. G.; Manjunath, J.; Anand Kumar, R.; Suresh, S.; Fernandes, G.

Introduction and Aim: A novel beta-coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China during the early December 2019 and spread globally. The clinical signs and symptoms and the disease severity in people infected with COVID-19 can be varied. The present study was conducted to study the biomarker profile and their association with disease severity in COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This was a single-centre Cohort study of data regarding epidemiological, clinical and biomarker parameters, and outcome of COVID-19 patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital in South India. CDC guidelines were followed for assessing disease severity. Results: A total of 336 COVID-19 patients were admitted during the study period. Of these 16 were excluded and 320 cases were analysed. Mean age of patients was 44.82 years. A male predominance was observed. Diabetes mellitus was the most common co-morbidity. Asymptomatic, Mild, moderate, severe and critical disease was seen in 15%, 52.5%, 20.3%, 6.3% and 5.9% patients respectively. ICU care was required in 15.3%. Overall mortality was 5.3%. The mean NLR, ALC, CRP, LCR, LDH, Ferritin and D-dimer in the severe group vs non-severe group were 19.03 vs 4.2, 1025cells/cu mm vs 1740cells/cu mm, 185.8mg/L vs 31.7mg/L, 17.1 vs 996.3, 552.8IU/L vs 252.7IU/L, 2531.9ng/ml vs 414.1ng/ml and 2245.5ng/ml vs 339.4ng/ml respectively. Conclusion: An increased NLR, CRP, LDH, Ferritin and D-dimer and a reduced ALC and LCR are significantly associated with disease severity, need for ICU and mortality. These biomarkers will be useful adjunct to clinical assessment in better categorising and management of COVID-19 patients.