VOLUME 26 , ISSUE 1 ( January, 2022 ) > List of Articles
Dhruv Talwar, Nitin Raisinghani, Sparsh Madaan, Vidyashree Hulkoti, Annadatha Akhilesh, Shivam Khanna, Divit Shah, Shubham Nimkar
Keywords : COVID-19, High-resolution computed tomography score, Interleukin 6, Neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio
Citation Information : Talwar D, Raisinghani N, Madaan S, Hulkoti V, Akhilesh A, Khanna S, Shah D, Nimkar S. Interleukin 6 and Its Correlation with COVID-19 in Terms of Outcomes in an Intensive Care Unit of a Rural Hospital: A Cross-sectional Study. Indian J Crit Care Med 2022; 26 (1):39-42.
DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-24075
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
Published Online: 17-01-2022
Copyright Statement: Copyright © 2022; The Author(s).
Background: Interleukin 6 (IL-6) encoded by the gene coded as IL 6 acts as a proinflammatory cytokine as well as an anti-inflammatory myokine. It is postulated that IL 6 is associated directly with the severity of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Another domain that is thought to predict the severity of COVID-19 is the neutrophil:lymphocyte (N:L) ratio; a higher N:L ratio is postulated to be related to more severe outcomes. Thus, the present study was aimed to establish a correlation of COVID-19 with IL-6 in terms of clinical outcomes. We had also tried to find the relationship between IL-6 and N:L ratio and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) score. Methods: We have conducted a cross-sectional study of 200 patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positive for COVID-19 from January to May 2021. Serum IL-6, N:L ratio, and HRCT chest were conducted on admission. Result: Out of 200 patients who were admitted to the ICU with COVID-19, while the IL-6 was higher in patients with increased N:L ratio and HRCT score, the association of IL-6 with clinical outcomes in terms of discharged and expired was found to be statistically not significant. Conclusion: Serum IL-6 was found not to be a potent marker for clinical outcomes in ICU patients in terms of death vs survived. However, the IL-6 levels on admission can be correlated with the computed tomography (CT) severity scores as well as N:L ratio of patients admitted to an ICU.