This blood test may predict which hospitalized COVID-19 patients are at risk for severe illness
Scientists have developed a blood test and new scoring system that may help doctors predict which COVID-19 patients are at risk for severe disease and therefore in need of more intervention, according to a new study published in the journal EBioMedicine.
In the study, scientists performed blood tests on 80 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and then measured the patients’ levels of two different cytokines — IL-6 and IL-10 — which act as messengers for the immune system.
The study’s senior author, Gerry McElvaney, a professor of medicine at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Ireland, tells Yahoo Life that IL-6 is a “pro-inflammatory protein,” while IL-10 is an “anti-inflammatory protein” and that both are “known to be altered in COVID-19” patients.
“IL-6 is kind of turning on the immune system, while IL-10 is one of our anti-inflammatory cytokines that tries to turn things down,” Dr. Matt Exline, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life. “As you’re fighting an infection, the body is trying to find an even keel” between the two. “If it’s too turned up, that’s bad,” says Exline, “and if it’s too turned down that’s also bad. I think the concept they identified [in the study] is an important one.”
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/this-blood-test-may-predict-which-covid-19-patients-are-at-risk-for-severe-illness-233553450.html