The COVID-19 illness can be different for patients. It is therefore helpful for medical professionals to recognize which COVID-19 patient is an early patient Lung failure threatens. These patients could then be monitored closely. In return, patients without risk characteristics can be treated in the normal ward or even at home. In this way, places in intensive care units can be spared and assigned to those who really need them.
In a study, scientists from the LMU Munich Clinic now so-called Biomarkers found that make this distinction possible. The results were published in the “Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology”.
“Do we need markers”
Most people get sick after one infection with the virus Sars-CoV-2 only lightly and recover quickly. However, about five percent of the patients experience a severe course of the disease with shortness of breath. Some of these patients require artificial respiration in the intensive care unit. With a rapidly increasing number Infections the capacities of the intensive care units could be overloaded.
“We saw many patients with COVID-19 in our emergency room in March and April and had to decide which of the patients with a severe course of the illness is to be expected ”, say Tobias Herold and Tobias Weinberger, Senior physician of the Central Emergency Department (ZNA) on the Großhadern campus LMU Clinic. In order to identify patients who are at risk of deteriorating, “we need markers that predict the clinical course”.
89 patients examined
Together with colleagues from the LMU Have clinic Herald and Weinberger In a pilot study, the clinical course and laboratory parameters of 89 patients with COVID-19 were investigated, who were affected by the severity of the illness had to be treated in the hospital. From this group, 32 patients – mostly men – had to be ventilated.
It was found that they all had elevated levels of an inflammation marker, IL-6, in the blood. Even more: “An IL-6 value of over 80 picograms / milliliter and a CRP value of over 9.7 milligrams / deciliter during the illness said the later Lung failure ahead with high accuracy, ”explains Tobias Herold. The risk for one Lung failure was increased many times for patients with elevated values.
There is a great need for such knowledge internationally and there is currently a great deal of scientific interest. It is also unclear whether IL-6 is a central factor in the spreading disease in the lungs or just a marker of disease activity.
Braking the inflammatory process
If the former is true, drugs that intervene in this inflammatory process could have a positive effect on the course of the disease. To answer this question, is currently also on LMU Clinic conducted another study. It tries to slow down the escalating inflammatory process.
In order to gain further insight into the disease process, the LMU Clinic, the interdisciplinary scientific working group CORKUM was launched. CORKUM should serve to better understand and treat COVID-19 at all levels and with the perspective of various medical disciplines and scientists.
–
