Interleukin-6 and Ferritin Levels and their Clinical Correlation in COVID-19 Patients: A Quantitative Assessment

ABSTRACT

Aim: Quantitative Assessment of Interleukin-6 and Ferritin Levels and its Clinical Correlation among COVID-19 Patients. Methods: The cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital, Darbhanga, Bihar, India for 1 year after taking the approval of the protocol review committee and Institutional Ethics Committee. 120 COVID-19 positive patients, diagnosed upon admission by RT-PCR of oropharyngeal swabs with or without respiratory symptoms were included in the study group. Results: Group A had 55 patients among which 7 patients were asymptomatic and 48 had mild symptoms with RR <24/m and SpO2 >94% in room air, the number of patients with co-morbidities like type 2 diabetes mellitus were 15, with hypertension and cardiac disorders were 10 and with respiratory disorders were 5 in Group A, Group B there were 30 patients among which 9 had mild symptoms and 21 patients had moderate symptoms with RR 24-30/m (or) SpO2 90%-94% at room air. The mean levels with standard deviation of Serum IL-6 and serum ferritin in Group A, Group B and Group C patients, respectively has depicted in. table 2. On pairwise comparison by Mann-Whitney U test among the groups it shows that the mean IL-6 levels are significantly different in all the three groups. Kruskal Wallis pairwise comparison shows IL-6 levels to be significantly increased in Group C (35) patients with severe disease compared to Group A and Group B patients with mild and moderate disease respectively (p-value <0.001). Serum Ferritin levels did not show any statistically significant difference among Group A, Group B and Group C;however, ferritin levels were markedly increased in Group C patients with severe disease (p-value=0.44). Conclusion: Serum IL-6 levels independently showed a good correlation with disease severity among COVID-19 patients, and serum ferritin levels was elevated only in severely symptomatic individuals with COVID-19 infections. Hence, Serum IL-6 could have a significant role in assessment of disease severity and Prognosis among COVID-19 patients.