C-REACTIVE PROTEIN LEVELS AND THE SEVERITY OF COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: To compare the C-reactive proteinlevels in different groups of COVID-19 patients to assess disease severity. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital Kohat, from Apr 2020 to Jun2020. Methodology: Forty fiveConfirmed cases of COVID-19 patients were included by non-probability consecutive sampling. Patients were divided into five groups (Asymptomatic, Mild, Moderate, Severe and Critical). Serum sample for C -reactiveprotein levels were collected at presentation and compared in different clinical groups by Paired sample “t” test andoneway Anova(Post Hoc LSD). Result: Out of 45 cases in our study28 (62.2%) were male and 17 (37.8%) were female. Mean age of patients was 51.96 ± 16 and mean C-reactiveproteinlevels were 76.61± 75 mg/L. When compared by paired sample t-test C-reactive proteinlevels were: higherin the mild patient group than asymptomatic group, higher inthe moderate groupthan mild group, higherin severe group than moderate group and those in the critical group were higherthan those in the severe group. The difference was statistically significant with p-value <0.05 in each group. Conclusion: C-reactive proteinlevelswerelowest in asymptomatic and highest in critical patients inearly COVID-19. This may help guide management.

Keywords

• covid-19
• c-reactive protein
• disease severity classification