Evaluation of the Effect of Biomarker Levels Associated with Disease Severity on Mortality in COVID-19 Patients in the Gaziantep Region of Turkey

Abstract

Aim: COVID-19 progresses rapidly and severely and often causes death in people with underlying health problems or co-morbidities. This study aimed to investigate the effect of clinical and some specific laboratory parameters on the prognosis and mortality of critically ill COVID-19 patients who need to be followed in the intensive care unit (ICU).
 Subjects and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study. A total of 180 patients treated in the ICU were included in the study. The data of clinical and levels of D-dimer, cardiac troponin I (cTnI), Ferritin, and CK-MB were researched. The multivariate and univariate logistic regression models were employed to investigate the risk factors affiliated with in-hospital death.
 Results: There was a significant difference in mortality between women and men (p=0.002). Hypertension was the most common comorbid disease, mortality was detected to be significantly greater in patients over 65 years of age. The serum D-dimer, cTnI, CK-MB, and ferritin levels were found to be higher in patients at risk. In the multivariate logistic regression model, we detected that ferritin above 300 μg/l (p=0.05) alongside cancer was associated with mortality.
 Conclusions: This study showed that advanced age is an important risk factor as well as the mortality of patients with cancer –especially those with a ferritin value above 300 μg/l and patients with a high cTnI value. Mortality was significantly higher in patients with increased serum D-dimer, cTnI, CK-MB, and ferritin levels.