Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is turning into a pandemic. Here, we analyzed 95 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Sixty-two moderate patients, 21 severe patients and 12 critical patients (6 patients died) were included in our study. Our results showed that the mean serum levels of procalcitonin in severe patients were over 4 times higher than those in moderate patients, and they were over 8 times higher in critical patients than in moderate patients. For the discharged patients, both high-normal procalcitonin levels and abnormal procalcitonin levels decreased during recovery. However, in the death cases, the serum levels of procalcitonin increased as the disease worsened. We demonstrate that procalcitonin may be an indicator of severity and may contribute to determining the severity of patients infected with COVID-19; moreover, serial procalcitonin measurements may be useful in predicting prognosis.
Procalcitonin levels in COVID-19 patients