Abstract
There are few accurate prognostic indications of the illness’s
development and severity for COVID-19, despite certain biomarkers having
been investigated. The unexpected nature of COVID-19’s course, which can
quickly progress from asymptomatic to severe disease, lies at the heart
of the disease’s intricacy. Predicting SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity through
laboratory biomarkers and as such, identifying the patients’ illness
severity at the time of initial admission would be crucial in aiding
patient care. In this study, we sought to evaluate hematological,
biochemical and inflammatory biomarkers in COVID-19 patients. This was a
cross-sectional research with 48 COVID-19 patients (16
asymptomatic/mild, 16 moderate, and 16 severe) and 48 age-sex matched
COVID-19-negative clients from Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in
Kenya. On admission, demographic information, symptoms, and laboratory
test results were collected. Significantly, COVID-19 severity was
associated with hemoglobin (p<0.0001), white blood cells
(p=0.0022), hematocrit (p<0.0001), blood urea nitrogen
(p=0.01), blood sodium (p=0.0002), potassium (p=0.0483), C-reactive
protein (p=0.0002), and Lactate Dehydrogenase (p<0.0001). CRP
showed a high positive connection (0.5433; p=0.0006) with COVID-19
severity, but LDH showed a mild positive correlation (0.2484;
p<0.0001). When comparing asymptomatic/mild COVID-19 to severe
COVID-19, discriminative accuracy for CRP and LDH was greatest
(AUC:0.8867, 95% CI:0.7532-1.000) and (AUC:1.000, 95% CI:1.000-1.000),
respectively. Inflammatory biomarkers, hematological and biochemical
indices have the potential to complement SARS-CoV-2 testing and predict
the course of COVID-19. This will be useful in designing appropriate
care for COVID-19 patients through targeted therapy.