An evaluation of the different biomarkers to discriminate bleeding in Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever

Abstract

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. In this study, an evaluation was made of the potential use of iron metabolism and liver function biomarkers to estimate the bleeding status in CCHF patients. This prospective study was conducted in Cumhuriyet University, Turkey. Only patients with confirmed CCHF were enrolled in the study. The study subjects comprised 40 CCHF patients and 37 healthy control subjects. Serum iron, unsaturated iron binding capacity (UIBC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were determined using the colorimetric method. Serum ferritin levels were measured using the electrochemiluminescent method. The serum ferritin (p = 0.037), AST (p = 0.0002), ALT (p = 0.002), LDH (p = 0.0005) and aPTT (p = 0.001) values were higher in patients with bleeding than in patients without bleeding. Receiving operating characteristic analyses were applied for the area under the curve (AUC) values for ferritin, aPTT, and AST to discriminate the bleeding status in patients, an these were determined as 0.717, 0.819, and 0.882, respectively. A cut-off value of 149 U/L for AST was obtained to discriminate the bleeding condition in CCHF patients. Higher ferritin (p < 0.0001) levels were determined in patients compared to the control group. The iron (p = 0.180) and UIBC (p = 0.0017) values were lower in patients than in the control group. Cytokine storm due to an increase in ferritin levels may contribute to the increased inflammation and coagulation abnormalities in CCHF patients. It was concluded that routine screening of the AST level would be helpful to estimate the bleeding status in addition to screening liver damage in CCHF patients.