English 
Italian CONTRIBUTI SCIENTIFICI – Scientific Papers
Volume:
Biochimica Clinica 2020; 44(4) 031-032
Published on-line:
November 4, 2020
DOI:
10.19186/BC_2020.095
The role of acute phase proteins for predicting SARS-CoV-2 positivity upon emergency department admission
AUTHORS
1Section of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
2Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia and INCLIVA Biomedical Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
3Microbiology and Virology Unit, Department of Pathology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
4Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, The Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, USA
ABSTRACT
Background: due to the important abnormalities observed in the concentration of many inflammation/infection biomarkers in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), this study was aimed to evaluate whether the assessment of C-Reactive Protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) could help predicting SARS-CoV-2 positivity at emergency department (ED) presentation in patients with suspected infection.
Methods: the study population consisted of patients consecutively admitted to the ED of the University Hospital of Verona, with clinical suspicion of SARS-CoV-2 infection over a 2-week period. Blood samples as well as oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected upon ED admission.
Results: the final study population consisted of 92 patients, 48 with negative and 44 with positive SARS-CoV-2 swabs. No significant differences were observed in concentrations of CRP, IL-6, or PCT between patients with or without acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. A significant correlation was found between CRP and IL-6 in both negative (r=0.77) and positive (r=0.74) SARS-CoV-2 cases, between CRP and PCT in SARS-CoV-2 negative (r=0.38) and positive (r=0.44) cases, and between IL-6 and PCT in SARS-CoV-2 negative (r=0.37) and positive (r=0.40) cases. The area under the curve (AUC) of none of the biomarkers could efficiently discriminate patients with negative or positive swabs (CRP: 0.52; IL-6: 0.51; PCT: 0.53).
Conclusions: routine measurement of CRP and IL-6, together with PCT, does not seem a useful pre-test strategy in ED patients with clinical suspicion of COVID-19.