The role of carbohydrate antigen 125 in COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an inflammatory process with complex pathophysiology and by affecting the cardiovascular system directly or indirectly that causes life threatening cardiac injuries. Therefore, clarifying the effects of this infection on the cardiovascular system is of importance in terms of the clinical course of the disease. The increases in cardiac and inflammatory biomarkers in COVID-19 have been associated with poor prognosis and mortality. However, there are no specific laboratory markers yet to assess the severity of the disease. In this context, the combination of available biomarkers is needed to better define the clinical course of this disease. Carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA-125) has become a remarkable marker in recent years as a result of the correlation of increasing levels in cardiovascular diseases with clinical, hemodynamic, echocardiographic parameters and its relation with mortality or re-hospitalization due to heart failure. These findings suggest that CA-125 might be useful biomarker to identify the damage mechanisms of COVID-19, monitoring the prognosis of the disease and the course of the treatment.