The significance of a novel inflammatory biomarker, presepsin, in predicting disease prognosis in patients with COVID-19

- OBJECTIVE: This study aims at determining the significance of a novel inflam-matory biomarker, presepsin, in predicting dis-ease prognosis in patients with COVID-19. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospec-tive study was concluded at the University Hos-pital between April and August 2020. The study involved 88 COVID-19 patients (48 men and 40 women). The patients were categorized into two groups: the patients admitted to the COVID-19 clinic, described as the moderate COVID-19 pa-tients (Group-1; n=44), and those admitted to the internal medicine outpatient clinic, who were the mild COVID-19 patients (Group-2; n=44). The groups were compared using inflammatory markers: presepsin, C-Reactive Protein to Albu-min Ratio, Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio, and procalcitonin. RESULTS: Serum presepsin levels (195.29 vs. 52.12 pg/ml) were significantly higher in the Group-1 compared to the Group-2 (p=0.001). The gender distribution and average age were similar in both groups (p > 0.05). While ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase, D-Dimer, platelet lym-phocyte ratio, C-Reactive Protein to Albumin Ratio (p=0.001), erythrocyte sedimentation ra-tio, C-Reactive Protein and presepsin were sig-nificantly higher in the Group-1 compared to Group-2 (p<0.05), while hemoglobin and lym-phocyte were significantly lower in the Group-1 than in Group-2 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Serum presepsin levels were found to be significantly higher in moderate clin-ical group COVID-19 patients compared to mild group. Presepsin, a new inflammatory biomark-er, may be useful in predicting the prognosis and early treatment of COVID-19 infection.