ABSTRACT

Background: The COVID-19 has infected more than 140 million people worldwide, killing more than three million people. The existing studies lack research on the relationship between IL-37 and Hs-Troponin markers with COVID-19 syndrome. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the predictive roles of IL-37 and Hs-Troponin markers in examining patients with COVID-19.

Material and methods: The present study was conducted in Salahalddin General Hospital, Iraq. A total of 45 blood samples were collected from hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and 45 blood samples were collected from healthy people who considered as a control group. Commercial ELISA kits for the quantitative determination of IL-37 (CUSABIO, China) and Hs-Troponin (Abbott, USA) were used.

Results: Maximum patients belonged to the age group of 30-39 (33.3%) and 40-49 years (28.9%). Significantly higher levels of IL-37 were found in patients (179.97± 86.12) than in healthy controls (40.29±13.50). Similarly, significantly higher levels of Hs-Troponin were also observed in patients (50.59± 22.19) than in healthy group (15.64± 5.47) (P≤0.05). ROC curve showed that in screening patients with COVID-19, both IL-37 and Hs-Troponin showed 100% sensitivity while specificity was found to be97% and 95% respectively (p<0.05). Moreover, Pearson’s correlation test showed a negative correlation between IL-37 and Hs-Troponin.

Conclusions: We concluded that the severity of diseases increase with age which might be due to the fact that age progression results in weaker immunity. The increase in age makes people vulnerable to almost all types of infections. In such a situation, any challenging or intense disease can be threatening to one's life. Both IL-37 and Hs-Troponin are good prognostic markers in screening patients with COVID-19.