The “Covid-19” disease can take a very different course for patients. It is very helpful for medical professionals to recognize early which patients are at risk of lung failure. 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 Clinic Munich” have now found so-called biomarkers that enable this distinction. The results have now been published in the “Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology”.
According to this, most people become ill after an infection with the virus “Sars-CoV-2” 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 of 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 was expected to have a severe course of the disease,” said Dr. med. Tobias Herold and Dr. med. Tobias Weinberger, senior physician at the LMU Clinic. In order to identify patients who are at risk of deteriorating, “we need markers that predict the clinical course”.
In a pilot study, the doctors have now examined the clinical course and laboratory parameters of 89 patients with “Covid-19” who had to be treated in hospital due to the severity of the disease. 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 disease predicted the later lung failure with high accuracy,” explains Dr. Tobias Herold continues. The risk of lung failure was many times higher for patients with elevated values.
In order to gain further insights into the disease process, the “LMU Klinikum” has set up the cross-disciplinary scientific working group CORKUM. CORKUM should serve to better understand and treat “Covid-19” at all levels and with the perspective of various medical disciplines and scientists.
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