C-reactive protein as the marker of COVID-19 severity at Sanjiwani general hospital, Gianyar, Bali in 2020

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus type infection disease that was first reported at Wuhan city, Hubei province, China in December 2019. Cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia were increasing, reaching up to 287,008 confirmed cases on 30th September 2020. Sanjiwani general hospital Gianyar, Bali, one of the COVID-19 referral hospital at Gianyar, Bali, has treated as many as 149 confirmed COVID-19 cases from August to October 2020. The most significant laboratory parameter associated with COVID-19 severity was C-reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR).Methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were gathered through secondary data from the medical records using the total sampling method. Descriptive analyses were performed to describe the samples characteristics and to calculate the mean CRP level. Meanwhile, the chi-square test was done to investigate the association between CRP level and the severity level of COVID-19. The result is considered statistically significant if the p value is <0.05Results: Most of the samples are >60 years old (24.4%), female (56.6%), and have diabetes mellitus as their comorbid (46,7%). The mean CRP level is 8.9 mg/L. CRP level >8.9 mg/l significantly affects COVID-19 patients’ severity with the p value of 0.000 (p<0.005). The higher the initial CRP level of COVID-19 patients, the higher the severity level will be.Conclusions: There is an association between the increased CRP level at the beginning of hospital admission and the severity of COVID-19 patients.