The prevalence of procalcitonin positivity in patients with severe Covid-19

Abstract

Objectives: The aims of this paper were to characterize patients with severe Covid-19 and study the prevalence of positive procalcitonin test in those patients.

Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, data were collected in infectious diseases clinic between June 2020 and July 2021. Real time polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) was conducted to confirm the diagnosis of Covid-19. COBAS system was used to determine procalcitonin positivity following the instructions of manufacturer. 

Results: During the study period, 454 Covid-19 confirmed patients were referred to the clinic. Among those, 55/494 (11.13%) had severe covid-19 infection. Fever (89.1 %) was the most common clinical features followed by cough (29.1%) and shortness of breath (20%). In this project, we found 4/55 (7.27%) patients had elevated procalcitonin levels. High procalcitonin was not associated with clinical outcome (P=0.99).

Conclusions: In agreement with other studies, fever was the most common symptom in patients with severe Covid-19. Small number of the patients with severe Covis-19 showed elevated procalcitonin levels. This might indicate that antibiotics should not prescribed empirically to such patients. Further studies are needed to investigate this.