Utility of inflammatory makers, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and procalcitonin tests in COVID-19

Background and objective: Many tests are conducted for monitoring the progression and the severity of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection. However, the extent to which these tests are helpful in clinical practice and therapeutics of COVID-19 is still ambiguous. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of performing inflammatory marker tests, liver function tests, and procalcitonin test in the diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19 infection. Methods: The current study compares the results of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, ferritin, and procalcitonin tests in two different populations of 123 COVID-19 suspects and a control group of 110 healthy individuals in Erbil city of Kurdistan region of Iraq to search for possible significant differences in both groups. Results: The COVID-19 group had significantly higher ferritin and procalcitonin mean values than the control group (P = 0.001). The differences between alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were significant in some age and gender classes of both groups. However, the overall differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.339 and 0.286, respectively). Conclusion: The outcome of the current study suggests that among the group of tests conducted for the study population, the most useful tests are ferritin and procalcitonin to monitor the COVID-19 patients' health status.