Ferritin is associated with the severity of lung involvement but not with worse prognosis in patients with COVID-19: Data from two Italian COVID-19 units
Open accessAbstract
The coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is characterised by a heterogeneous clinical presentation, a complex pathophysiology and a wide range of imaging findings, depending on disease severity and time course. We conducted a retrospective evaluation of hospitalized patients with proven SARS-CoV-2 infection, clinical signs of COVID-19 and computed tomography (CT) scan-proven pulmonary involvement, in order to identify relationships between clinical, serological, imaging data and disease outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Clinical and serological records of patients admitted to two COVID-19 Units of the Abruzzo region in Italy with proven SARS-CoV-2 pulmonary involvement investigated with CT scan, assessed at the time of admission to the hospital, were retrospectively evaluated. Sixty-one patients (22 females and 39 males) of median age 65 years were enrolled. Fifty-six patients were discharged while death occurred in 5 patients. None of the lung abnormalities detected by CT was different between discharged and deceased patients. No differences were observed in the features and extent of pulmonary involvement according to age and gender. Logistic regression analysis with age and gender as covariates demonstrated that ferritin levels over the 25th percentile were associated with the involvement of all 5 pulmonary lobes (OR = 14.5, 95% CI 2.3-90.9, p = 0.004), the presence of septal thickening (OR = 8.2, 95% CI 1.6-40.9, p = 0.011) and the presence of mediastinal lymph node enlargement (OR = 12.0, 95% CI 1.1-127.5, p = 0.039) independently of age and gender. We demonstrated that ferritin levels over the 25th percentile are associated with a more severe pulmonary involvement, independently of age and gender and not associated with disease outcomes. The identification of reliable biomarkers in patients with COVID-19 may help guiding clinical decision, tailoring therapeutic approaches and ultimately improving the care and prognosis of patients with this disease.
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Ferritin levels were found to be correlated also with the severity of pulmonary lesions in COVID-19 patients.
“However, ferritin levels were found to be correlated also with the severity of pulmonary lesions in COVID-19 patients [52].”
From Acute mesenteric ischemia in COVID-19 patients (2021) · cites this paper as [52]
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Acute mesenteric ischemia in COVID-19 patients
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- Authors
- Carubbi, F., Salvati, L., Alunno, A., Maggi, F., Borghi, E., Mariani, R., Mai, F., Paoloni, M., Ferri, C., Desideri, G., Cicogna, S., & Grassi, D.
- Affiliations
- University of L'Aquila (IT)
- University of Perugia (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Carubbi, Francesco
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2021-03-01
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4863-4863
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7921386
- OpenAlex
- W3135553317
- Cited by
- 104
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 19
- FWCI
- 7.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi dell Aquila (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, ferritin, SARS-CoV-2, pulmonary involvement, disease severity, prognostic factors, computed tomography findings, septal thickening, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, hospitalized patients, mortality
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Ferritins, Humans, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, Severity of Illness Index, Tomography, X-Ray Computed
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