Role of Interluekin – 6 as a Prognostic Marker in Covid-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre in Indore District, State M.P.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world since its emergence and has wreaked havoc globally. As hospitals around the world are being overwhelmed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of utmost urgency to identify biomarkers which would accurately predict patient outcome at an early stage. Many studies suggested that numerous markers of inflammation like CRP, ESR, LDH, D-Dimer, Serum Ferritin and Interleukin -6 were found to be significantly elevated in patients with severe disease relative to patients with milder conditions. Amongst which IL-6 appears to be the most important driver of immune dysregulation and ARDS in Covid-19. According to known evidence, IL-6 is superior to CRP and other markers of inflammation in predicting respiratory failure in Covid-19 (1, 2].
 Method: All patients had a positive covid-19 Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results. Patients with the history of comorbidities such as Hypertension (HTN), Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Asthama, Heart failure, Chronic renal Failure (CRF) were included. The clinical and laboratory findings including Haemoglobin, WBC counts, Differential Counts, Liver Function Tests, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Ferritin and Interleukin -6 (IL-6) were obtained from the database. Results: A total of 50 patients were included in the study. The median age of study population was found to be 52.5 years. It was observed that there were significantly increased serum IL-6 levels as the age increased. The serum levels of both IL-6 and CRP were markedly increased in morbid patients. Higher plasma IL-6 levels translated to more severity (determined by of days of hospital stay, mechanical ventilation and mortality).
 Conclusion: This study proves that serum IL-6 level is an accurate and a reliable indicator in predicting the prognosis of the patients in terms of longer hospital stay ,greater need of mechanical ventilation, and/ or increased mortality.
 Keywords: IL-6& Covid-Biomarkers.