Evaluation of the ability of the C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio to predict short-term mortality in patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to determine the ability of the C-reactive protein (CRP)-to-albumin ratio (CAR) to predict short-term mortality in patients with COVID-19. Material and methods This retrospective, observational, cohort study included patients with COVID-19. The patients’ demographics, clinical characteristics, CRP, albumin, CAR, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, Troponin I and all-cause mortality within 30 days after admission were noted. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed, and odds ratios were calculated to determine the discriminative ability of the parameters. Results A total of 103 patients with a median of age of 57 (20-92) years were included in the study. The rate of 30-day mortality was 4.8% for the study cohort. According to the best Youden’s index, the cut-off value for CRP was determined as 7 (sensitivity: 80%, specificity: 78.6%), and the area under curve (AUC) value was 0.801 (95% confidence interval: 71.1-87.3). According to the best Youden’s index, the cut-off value for CAR was 0.18 (sensitivity: 80%, specificity: 78.6%), and the area under curve (AUC) value was 0.806 (95% confidence interval: 71.6-87.7). There was no statistically significant difference between the AUC values of CRP and CAR (DeLong equality test, p = 0.938). The odds ratios of CRP (>7 mg/L) and CAR (>0.18) for 30-day mortality were 14.667 (95% confidence interval: 1.555-138.299) and 13.818 (95% confidence interval: 1.468-130.076), respectively. Conclusion CAR was not useful in predicting 30-day mortality in patients with COVID-19. The calculation of CAR rather than CRP had no clinically significant contribution to the prediction of 30-day mortality in this patient group.

Keywords

• COVID-19; SARS-Cov-2; blood tests; coronavirus; C-reactive proteins; albumin; laboratory