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Why are some people sick than other people infected with COVID-19? Since December 2019, when the first cases of coronavirus have been identified in Wuhan, China, researchers had difficulty learning why about 40% of the population remains asymptomatic and others end up at a hospital - and even lose their lives - Following the highly infectious virus. Currently, doctors use risk factors such as age, underlying medical conditions, including an immunocompromised state, obesity and heart disease, in order to determine the likelihood of coronavirus infection. severe. However, according to a group of researchers, identify patients at risk of death could be as simple as analyzing the blood of a patient.

Determined by five biomarkers

A new study from the University of George Washington has published inFuture medicineSuggests that five biomarkers in the blood, extracted from a blood test, could help predict patients at a higher risk of clinical deterioration and death.

"When we started treating Covid-19 patients, we watched them go better or worsen, but we did not know why" Juan Reyes, MD, co-author of the study and assistant professor of medicine. GW School of Sciences of Medicine and Health, explained in aPress release. "Some initial studies were out of China showing that some biomarkers were associated with bad results. There was a desire to see if it was true for our patients here at the US.

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The researchers analyzed the blood of 299 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted to GW Hospital between March and May, whose five biomarkers were evaluated - IL-6, D-dimer, CRP, LDH and ferritin. They found that high levels of these biomarkers were linked to inflammation and a coagulation disorder, increasing their risk of admission to the ICU, invasive ventilatory support and death. They even identified the level at which the chances of death were highest, when the LDH level was greater than 1200 units / L and a D-dimer level was greater than 3 μg / ml.

Researchers hope that their conclusions will help physicians predict the results of coronavirus patients, resulting in a more effective processing protocol.

"We hope that these biomarkers help doctors determine how they need to treat aggressively to treat patients, that a patient is released and how to monitor patients who come home, among other clinical decisions," Shanian, MD, first author of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, added.