A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ROLE OF SERUM FERRITIN AS A PROGNOSTIC MARKER IN COVID-19 PATIENTS, IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE IN INDORE DISTRICT, STATE M.P.

Abstract

Background: Ferritin is a key mediator of immune dysregulation, especially under extreme hyperferritinemia, via direct immune-suppressive and pro-inflammatory effects, contributing to the cytokine storm. In several studies, it was found that individuals with severe and very severe COVID-19 exhibited increased serum ferritin level, being serum ferritin in the very severe COVID-19 group significantly higher than in the severe COVID-19 group

Method: All patients had a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results.  Patients with the history of comorbidities such as Hypertension (HTN), Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Asthama, Heart failure, Chronic renal Failure (CRF) were included. The clinical and laboratory findings including haemoglobin, wbc counts, differential counts, liver function tests, c-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin and interleukin -6 (IL-6) were obtained from the database.

Results: A total of 38 patients were included in the study. The median age of study population was 52.5 years (13-90) and 65% of patients were male. Patients in the severe group were significantly older and had a higher frequency of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, heart failure and chronic renal failure as compared to the patients with the mild group. In addition frequency of dyspnea was higher in the severe group. It was observed that the serum ferritin levels of those patients who fell in the serious category were found significantly raised. P value for Serum Ferritin and Category (serious/mild) is 0.048 which is less than < 0.05.

Conclusion: Hence it was concluded that there was a strong association between increased serum ferritin levels and the severity of the disease. Early analysis of ferritin levels in patients with covid 19 might effectively define the severity of disease.

Keywords: Serum, Ferritin, Covid & Marker.