Late Breaking Abstract - Correlation of CT severity score and Inflammatory markers to predict the disease severity in COVID 19 patients

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Computed Tomography (CT) thorax and blood inflammatory markers play an important role in predicting COVID 19 disease severity. LDH, CRP and lymphocyte count could be useful to predict disease severity when CT is unavailable¹. <b>Objective:</b> To find any correlation between blood inflammatory markers and CT severity score to predict extent of COVID 19 pneumonitis. <b>Materials And Methods:</b> A total of 240 patients were assessed in this monocentric prospective observational study at a Tertiary care center, Pune, India. Patients aged &gt; 18 years of age admitted in hospital from 01/10/2020 to 31/05/2021 with COVID-19 confirmed diagnosis either by RT PCR test or by Rapid Antigen Test were included. Patients were investigated using CT thorax and blood parameters such Complete blood count, IL-6, D-dimer, Ferritin, LDH and CRP levels on the day of admission.<b></b><b>Results</b> Mean age of 240 (Male 156 and Female 84) study sample was 52.42 years (SD - 15.28) with maximum 87 years &amp; minimum 20 years old. As per WHO COVID 19 Clinical Management Guidelines,180 (75%) patients with Non severe, 31 (12.9%) patients with Severe and 29 (12.1%) patients were having Critical clinical presentation on admission. CRP &amp; LDH were having more correlation coefficient than other markers with CT score (0.599 &amp; 0.570 respectively). <b>Conclusion:</b> CRP and LDH levels can be used to predict extent of lung involvement in COVID 19 disease especially in resource limited settings.<b>Reference:</b> 1. Tordjman M, Mekki A, Mali RD, Monnier H, Neveu S, Chassagnon G, et al. Determining extent of COVID-19 pneumonia on CT based on biological variables. Respir Med. 2020;175(106206):106206.