Do Certain Biomarkers Predict Adverse Outcomes in Coronavirus Disease 2019?

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Given the rapid spread of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the 2019 - 2020 coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020. There have been several reports of the limited resources including the lack of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and mechanical ventilators. Thus, biomarkers that predict ICU stay and mortality will be an important tool to appropriately allocate the limited resources. The aim of this review was to identify laboratory markers that can effectively predict the risk of severe infection and increased mortality in COVID-19 cases. We conducted a systematic review of existing literature in six databases to evaluate the predictive value of various biomarkers. We used the keywords “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “Novel corona virus pneumonia”, “Biomarkers”, “Adverse outcomes”, “Mortality”, etc. among many others to refine our search. Several biomarkers were identified to be associated with adverse outcomes in the above studies. These biomarkers can be used as a tool to identify patients at increased risk for adverse outcomes so that the need for aggressive critical care in such patients is met.