Evaluation of Iron Status In COVID-19 Pneumonia

Ozge Oral Tapan^¹, Canan Gursoy^², Emrah Dogan^³, Utku Tapan^¹, Turhan Togan⁴, Sebahat Genc^¹

^¹Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Chest Diseases, Mugla, Turkey - ^²Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Intensive Care, Mugla, Turkey - ^³Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Mugla, Turkey - ⁴Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, Mugla, Turkey

Introduction: In late 2019, a new coronavirus disease was detected in Wuhan, China and called COVID-19. Iron metabolism is one of the topics have to be investigated for the development of therapeutic strategies for COVID-19. The aim of this study is to assess changes in traditional biochemical iron status indicators during COVID-19 pneumonia.

Materials and methods: A case-control study. Case group was defined as COVID-19 pneumonia with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed and the control group consisted of patients with non-COVID-19 pneumonia with culture confirmed. Biomarkers of anemia and iron metabolism, C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin were analyzed. Demographic features, thorax tomography findings, oxygen saturation, development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), intensive care unit admission, duration of hospitalization, discharge status (event free survival or death) were evaluated.

Results: 205 hospitalized patients with pneumonia were analyzed retrospectively. COVID-19 group was significantly younger than control group. 23 of 106 patients had critical COVID-19 infection. Comorbidity frequency and mortality rate of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were significantly higher. Hemoglobin (Hb), reticulocyte hemoglobin equivalent (RET-He), iron, transferin saturation (TSAT), CRP, procalcitonin (PCT) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) were significantly lower. Hb, RET-He, iron, TSAT levels significantly correlated to lung aeration loss, hospitalization day and inflamatory markers in COVID-19 pneumonia.

Conclusions: The patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had lower iron parameters even they were young. Low RET-He, iron, TSAT may effect the lung aeration loss related to paranchimal infiltrations and mortality of the patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Our data indicates that iron deficiency parameters associated with longer hospital stays, lower oxygenation, higher CRP and procalsitonin.