Biomedicines (Jun 2022)

C-Reactive Protein and Serum Albumin Ratio: A Feasible Prognostic Marker in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

  • Vicente Giner-Galvañ,
  • Francisco José Pomares-Gómez,
  • José Antonio Quesada,
  • Manuel Rubio-Rivas,
  • Javier Tejada-Montes,
  • Jesús Baltasar-Corral,
  • María Luisa Taboada-Martínez,
  • Blanca Sánchez-Mesa,
  • Francisco Arnalich-Fernández,
  • Esther Del Corral-Beamonte,
  • Almudena López-Sampalo,
  • Paula María Pesqueira-Fontán,
  • Mar Fernández-Garcés,
  • Ricardo Gómez-Huelgas,
  • José Manuel Ramos-Rincón,
  • on behalf of the SEMI-COVID-19 Network

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10061393
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 6
p. 1393

Abstract

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(1) Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin are inflammatory markers. We analyzed the prognostic capacity of serum albumin (SA) and CRP for an outcome comprising mortality, length of stay, ICU admission, and non-invasive mechanical ventilation in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. (2) Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study based on the Spanish national SEMI-COVID-19 Registry. Two multivariate logistic models were adjusted for SA, CRP, and their combination. Training and testing samples were used to validate the models. (3) Results: The outcome was present in 41.1% of the 3471 participants, who had lower SA (mean [SD], 3.5 [0.6] g/dL vs. 3.8 [0.5] g/dL; p p p p = 0.003). The CRP/SA model had a similar predictive capacity (honest AUC, 0.8135 [0.7865–0.8405]), with a continuously increasing risk and cutoff value of 25 showing the highest predictive capacity (OR, 1.470; 95% CI, 1.188–1.819; p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: SA and CRP are good independent predictors of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. For the CRP/SA ratio value, 25 is the cutoff for poor clinical course.

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