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Table. 1.

Main studies and findings on the prognostic role of CRP level in COVID-19 severity

Reference Study design Cut-off Sample size Main findings
Zeng, et al. [52] Meta-analysis NS 2,984 patients for assessing severity 393 for assessing mortality CRP levels increased in severe and fatal COVID-19 patients.
Qin, et al. [7] Retrospective NS 452 CRP levels were significantly higher in patients with severe COVID-19 than in patients with non-severe disease [57.9 (20.9–103.2) mg/L vs. 33.2 (8.2–59.7) mg/L].
Liu, et al. [8] Retrospective 8 mg/L 140 CRP levels could effectively assess disease severity and predict outcome in COVID-19 patients.
Wang, et al. [20] Cross-sectional 64.79 mg/L 143 CRP levels above the cut-off value were associated with a high risk of progression of COVID-19 to a critical stage.
Luo, et al. [14] Retrospective 41.4 mg/L 298 Increased CRP levels on hospital admission correlated with disease severity, representing a good predictor of adverse outcome.
Gao, et al. [12] Retrospective NS 43 CRP levels showed poor accuracy for predicting severe disease (AUC = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.44–0.75)
Ahnach, et al. [13] Retrospective 10 mg/L 145 CRP levels measured on admission showed good accuracy for predicting severity (AUC = 0.87). The CRP level was an independent predictor of disease severity in multivariate analysis.
Luo, et al. [17] Retrospective NS 25 CRP levels were not associated with severe COVID-19 pathology.
CRP levels were not associated with disease severity.
Villard, et al. [18] Retrospective NS 44 CRP levels were significantly higher in patients with a severe clinical course [152 (34–389) mg/L] than in those with a mild or moderate course [83 (3–298) mg/L; P = 0.03]. In multivariate analyses, CRP levels remained positively associated with disease severity.
Yang, et al. [19] Retrospective 26.3 mg/L 108 The CRP level showed good prognostic accuracy in assessing the severity of COVID-19 (AUC = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.70–0.86, P < 0.001)
Xie, et al. [6] Retrospective 27.8 mg/L 140 Increased CRP levels (median = 76.5 mg/L) were associated with low oxygen saturation (≤ 90%)

Abbreviations: AUC, area under the curve; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; CRP, C-reactive protein; CI, confidence interval; NS, not specified.

Ann Lab Med 2021;41:540~548 https://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2021.41.6.540

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