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. 2020 May 20;7(6):001725.
doi: 10.12890/2020_001725. eCollection 2020.

D-dimer and C-reactive Protein Blood Levels Over Time Used to Predict Pulmonary Embolism in Two COVID-19 Patients

Yael Becher  1 , Leonid Goldman  1 , Nadav Schacham  1 , Irina Gringauz  1 , Dan Justo  1
Affiliations

D-dimer and C-reactive Protein Blood Levels Over Time Used to Predict Pulmonary Embolism in Two COVID-19 Patients

Yael Becher et al. Eur J Case Rep Intern Med. .

Abstract

The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism is challenging in symptomatic COVID-19 patients since shortness of breath, chest pain, tachycardia, tachypnoea, fever, oxygen desaturation and high D-dimer blood levels might be features of both diseases. We present two COVID-19 patients in whom pulmonary embolism was suspected (and diagnosed) due to a discrepancy between an increase in D-dimer blood levels and a decrease in C-reactive protein blood levels over time. We believe that an opposite change in the blood levels of both biomarkers over time may be used as a novel method to predict pulmonary embolism in COVID-19 patients.

Learning points: The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism is challenging in COVID-19 patients since symptoms, signs and high D-dimer blood levels might be similar in both diseases.An increase in D-dimer blood levels and a decrease in C-reactive protein blood levels over time may be used as a novel method to predict pulmonary embolism in COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: C-reactive protein; COVID-19; D-dimer; pulmonary embolism.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interests: The Authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
D-dimer and CRP blood levels over time
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bilateral pulmonary embolism (red arrows) demonstrated on chest CT angiography
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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