Correlation of Quantitative CRP Values with Fibrinogen Levels in Covid-19 Patients at Dr. Hospital. Mohammad Hoesin Palembang

Abstract

COVID-19 is a contagious acute respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). In COVID-19 infection, there may be a high inflammatory response, causing thromboinflammatory processes through cytokine storm mechanisms, complement activation, and endothelial damage. Thus, the sequence of events can be seen from increased levels of CRP, fibrinogen, and other acute-phase proteins synthesized by the liver. The CRP value is useful for assessing the degree of inflammation which is widely used in predicting disease severity, prognosis, and mortality in COVID-19 patients, while fibrinogen levels are useful for assessing the severity of disease and hypercoagulation in COVID-19 patients. This study aims to determine the correlation between quantitative CRP and fibrinogen levels, as well as the correlation of fibrinogen levels with the severity of COVID-19 disease. This study was an observational correlative analytic study with a retrospective approach. The research was conducted at the Department of Internal Medicine of RSMH Palembang in May 2022 by taking medical record data of COVID-19 patients from May 2021 to September 2021. The research subjects are adult COVID-19 confirmed case patients who have not received standard therapy and anticoagulant drugs. The data taken are general characteristics, routine blood tests, blood chemistry, blood gas analysis, and hemostasis function. Data processing and analysis were done using SPSS version 25.0 for windows. There were 263 subjects, consisting of 26 subjects (26.2%) with mild degrees, 95 subjects (36.1%) with moderate degrees, 49 subjects (18.6%) with severe degrees, and 50 subjects (19%) with critical degrees. The correlation between CRP values and fibrinogen levels was obtained with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.574, while the correlation between fibrinogen levels and the severity of disease was obtained at r = 0.490. In this study, there was a strong correlation between quantitative CRP value and fibrinogen levels and a moderate correlation between fibrinogen levels and the severity of illness in COVID-19 patients at RSMH Palembang. These two parameters can be used as predictors of the severity of COVID-19 disease.