Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
EUROPEAN REVIEW FOR MEDICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES, cilt.28, ss.2960-2968, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Abstract. – OBJECTIVE: Cytokines are involved in the inflammatory/anti-inflammatory
balance and have been shown to play an important role in the course of COVID-19. This study
aimed to evaluate the relationship of periostin,
transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), interleukin-18 (IL-18), and matrix metalloproteinase 7
(MMP-7) levels with clinical course and mortality in patients with early COVID-19 pneumonia.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 150 hospitalized patients were diagnosed with COVID-19
between June and October 2021, and a control
group of 30 healthy individuals were included in
our study. The COVID-19 patients were divided into those who developed macrophage activation
syndrome (MAS) in Group 1 and those who did
not in Group 2. Serum periostin, MMP-7, TGF-β,
and IL-18 levels were measured from blood samples obtained at admission using Enzyme-Linked
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).
RESULTS: Periostin, MMP-7, and IL-18 levels were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients compared to the control group (p<0.001
for all). Periostin and MMP-7 levels were also
significantly higher in Group 1 than in Group
2 (p<0.001 for both). Periostin, MMP-7, IL-18,
and TGF-β levels were significantly higher in
non-surviving patients compared to survivors
(p=0.04, p<0.001, p<0.001, and p<0.001, respectively). In the receiver operating characteristic
(ROC) curve analysis, MMP-7 was found to have
high sensitivity (90%) at a predictive value of
2.66 ng/mL.
CONCLUSIONS: It is still not possible to predict which patients with early COVID-19 pneumonia will go on to develop MAS despite receiving standard treatment. The results of our study
suggest that elevation of periostin and MMP7 levels in the early period may predict the development of macrophage activation syndrome.