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Serum Amyloid A Levels and Severity of COVID-19 in Children
Selin Tasar1, Eda Karadag-Oncel2, Aysegul Elvan-Tuz2
1Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Health Sciences, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Correspondence to: Dr Selin Tasar, Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Health Sciences, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. sselintasar@gmail.com.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to determine the availability of serum amyloid A (SAA) in the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), to asses disease severity and to predict hospitalization status.
Methods:
Between March, 2020 and March, 2021, a total of 80 children (40 cases with COVID-19 and 40 cases in healthy group) were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups (mild and moderate/severe) to evaluate SAA levels in terms of clinical severity and also hospitalization status.
Results:
Comparisons between the two groups revealed that median SAA values were significantly higher in children with COVID-19 than in their healthy peers (21.45vs3.05 mg/L, P=0.002). There was no significant difference in the median serum SAA levels between mild and moderate/severe clinical disease (P=0.837). The SAA difference between the two groups with regards to hospitalization was not statistically significant (P=0.098).
Conclusions:
Although SAA level was found to be higher in children with COVID 19 compared to healthy controls, the sensitivity of SAA for the disease was found to be low. In addition, there was no difference between the groups in terms of clinical severity.
