A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE LEVEL OF FERRITIN IN PATIENTS INFECTED WITH COVID-19 AND THE CORRELATION TO THE SEVERITY OF THE DISEASE

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the ferritin levels in patients with COVID-19 disease as well as to correlate its levels with patient conditions so as to determine its usefulness as a measure of the disease burden.

Materials: This study accumulated information on 96 positive COVID 19 cases that were treated in hospitals in Thi-Qar province and identified medical records between November 2022 and December 2023. The information was also obtained through a questionnaire survey of the isolation hospitals. They were sub-categorized into: mild, moderate and severe diseases based on the severity of the disease.

Results: The study was able to show that there were high ferritin levels in COVID-19 cases with mild disease being the lowest. About 59% of the patients were males, 62.5% had mild disease, 31.25% moderate disease whereas 6.25% had a severe disease and needed invasive mechanical ventilation. Assessment of markers of inflammation may be useful in the management of COVID-19 infection since high levels of ferritin in the inflammatory response may have its application.

Conclusions: The outcomes of this research stress it is possible to use serum ferritin to assess the severity of disease in patients with COVID-19. High levels of ferritin within the patient were also correlated with an increase in the severity of the disease, which can assist practitioners in the early stage of detecting and managing severely ill patients.