Interleukin-6 as a Potential Predictor of COVID-19 Disease Severity in Hospitalized Patients and its Association with Clinical Laboratory Routine Tests
Abdolrahman Rostamian, Tooba Ghazanfari, Jalil Arabkheradmand, Maryam Edalatifard, Sara Ghaffarpour, Mohammad Reza Salehi, Seyed Reza Raeeskarami, Maedeh Mahmoodi Aliabadi, Maryam Rajabnia Chenary, Ensie Sadat Mirsharif, Davoud Jamali, Mohammad Reza Sattarian, Reza Najafizadeh, Sajjad Hosseinieselki Sari, Samira Jafarpour, Elham Nezhadseifi, Shafieh Movasseghi, Elahe Baharvand, Saba Beiranvand, Azin Roomi, Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh
Abstract
Background: Researchers have already reported a high level of interleukin (IL)-6 in patients affected by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we investigated the surge of IL-6 level and its association with the clinical and paraclinical markers in these patients. Materials and Methods: The study sample comprised 205 confirmed hospitalized patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and 70 healthy volunteer individuals. Routine laboratory examinations, including hematology, biochemistry, and hormone analysis, as well as IL-6 level measurement, were conducted. The patients grouped into 5 based on their IL-6 levels. Then, they were compared with regard to their need for mechanical ventilator and clinical laboratory routine tests. Results: IL-6 levels were significantly higher in hospitalized patients compared with healthy individuals (P<0.001). The IL-6 level was approximately 10-fold of the normal range in 22.9% of the patients. Also, more than 56.1% of them signify IL-6 over 3-fold of the normal range. IL-6