The Role of Biomarkers in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients With Systemic Manifestations

Abstract

The following article aims to review COVID-19 biomarkers used in hospital practice. It is apparent that COVID-19 is not simply a pulmonary disease but has systemic manifestations. For this reason, biomarkers must be used in the management of diagnosed patients to provide holistic care. Patients with COVID-19 have been shown to have pulmonary, hepatobiliary, cardiovascular, neurologic, and renal injury, along with coagulopathy and a distinct cytokine storm. Biomarkers can effectively inform clinicians of systemic organ injury due to COVID-19. Furthermore, biomarkers can be used in predictive models for severe COVID-19 in admitted patients. The utility of doing so is to allow for risk stratification and utilization of proper treatment protocols. In addition, COVID-19 biomarkers in the pediatric population are discussed, specifically in predicting Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. Ultimately, biomarkers can be used as predictive tools to allow clinicians to identify and adequately manage patients at increased risk for worse outcomes from COVID-19. Both literature review and anecdotal evidence has shown that severe COVID-19 is a systemic disease, and understanding associated biomarkers are crucial for hospitalized patients' proper clinical decision-making. For example, the cytokine storm releases inflammatory markers in different organ systems such as the pulmonary, hepatobiliary, hematological, cardiac, neurological, and renal systems. This review summarizes the latest research of COVID-19 that can help inform healthcare professionals how to better mitigate morbidity and mortality associated with this disease and provides information about certain systemic biomarkers that can be incorporated into hospital practice to provide more comprehensive care for hospitalized COIVD-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; acute respiratory distress syndrome by coronavirus 2; biomarkers; cytokine storm; hospital medicine; laboratory medicine; risk stratification.