Abstract
Background: Most COVID-19 patients experience a mild form of the disease, but there is a certain percentage of patients who progress to a very severe disease state that requires intensive care and invasive ventilation. In order to ensure better patient management and improved outcomes, early identification of patients who may be at a higher risk of severe infection can play an important role. The aim of this study was to assess the association between the mean procalcitonin (PCT) level and comorbidity in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Methods and Results: A total of 231 COVID-19-positive patients aged between 20 and 82 years (170[73.6 %] males and 61[26.4%] females) were included in this study. Serum PCT was accessed by procalcitonin assay using the Beckman Coulter UniCel DxI 800 instrument. All patients were classified into 5 groups according to age: 20-29 years - 20(8.7%), 30-39 years - 47(20.3%), 40-49 years - 72(31.2%), 50-59 years - 48(20.8%) and >60years - 44(19.0%). Eighty-seven (37.7%) patients had no chronic disease, while 144(62.3%) had comorbidities: hypertension (37[16.0%]), diabetes mellitus (44[19.0%]), a combination of diabetes mellitus with hypertension (32[13.9%]), asthma (6[2.6%]), hyperlipidemia (4[1.7%]), renal disease (1[0.4%]), and COPD (1[0.4%]). COVID-19 patients with diabetes in combination with hypertension had a statistically greater PCT level than COVID-19 patients without comorbidities (P=0.0273). However, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean PCT levels between other comorbidities. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean PCT level between different age categories (P=0.7390). The serum PCT measurement could evaluate the prognosis of the disease in some COVID-19 patients.