D-Dimer a biomarker for disease severity in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Introduction: The Covid-19 disease has devastating effect in the world since its emergence in Wuhan of the Hubei province in China in December 2019. The world struggled for an early and effective biomarker to predict severity and to improve the management of the disease. Aim: To estimate the level of D-dimer which could predict disease severity in Covid-19 related disease. Materials and Methods: This is a Cross sectional study done with D-dimer to predict disease severity in Covid-19 in the department of Biochemistry, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur. The study period is from June 2021 to August 2021. It involved analysis of 144 hospitalised patients of different grades of Covid-19 pneumonia with different ranges of severity. The study population included symptomatic patients of both sexes which are above 18 years with a laboratory confirmed Covid-19 by RTPCR from either throat or nasal swab. All the samples for D-dimer were collected 2-3 days from the period of confirmation. The study population are further divided into three cohorts viz. mild, moderate and severe Covid-19 groups based on the clinical parameters as per ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guide line published at the time. Results: The study produces results which showed significant differences in the ranges of D-dimer values across the different clinical severities of Covid-19 pneumonia (p