Interleukin-6 and severity of COVID-19 patients in Hefei, China

Med Mal Infect. 2020 Oct;50(7):629-631. doi: 10.1016/j.medmal.2020.06.005. Epub 2020 Jun 25.

Z Zhao¹, J Xie², M Yin³, Y Yang³, C Ding¹, Y Gao⁴, X Ma⁵

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, China.
² Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, China.
³ Department of ICU, Hefei Infectious Diseases Hospital, Hefei, Anhui, 230000, China.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, China. Electronic address: ygao387@ustc.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, China. Electronic address: xiaolingma@126.com.

Abstract

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Twenty-four out of 75 patients developed into severe condition in the course of the infection.
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The prominent laboratory abnormalities of COVID patients were lymphopenia, elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH).
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Elevated interleukin 6 (IL-6) correlated with decrease of LYM%, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell counts, and increase of CRP, LDH and Procalcitonin (PCT) levels.

Keywords: COVID-19; Interleukin 6; Severity.