Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 25, 2025
Digital PCR for Quantifying Circulating MicroRNAs in Acute Myocardial Infarction and Cardiovascular Disease
Published on: July 3, 2018
A Prognostic Marker in COVID-19 Disease Severity and Mortality: D-Dimer/Platelet Ratio
Alper Tahmaz1, Aysegul Seremet Keskin1, Filiz Kizilates1
1Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Health Sciences Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, TUR.
Insights
The D-dimer/platelet ratio (DPR) effectively predicts COVID-19 severity, ICU admission, and mortality. Higher DPR levels correlate with increased complications and mortality risk in coronavirus disease 2019 patients.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical research
- Clinical diagnostics
- Prognostic biomarkers
Background:
- D-dimer and platelet counts are key prognostic markers.
- The D-dimer/platelet ratio (DPR) combines these markers to predict clinical progression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the D-dimer/platelet ratio (DPR) for predicting COVID-19 severity.
- To assess DPR's consistency with other biomarkers for hospitalization and mortality.
Main Methods:
- Patients were stratified into three groups based on DPR levels.
- Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were compared across groups.
- DPR's predictive accuracy for intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality was analyzed.
Main Results:
- Increased DPR correlated with higher rates of renal failure, pulmonary thromboembolism, and stroke.
- High DPR patients required more intensive respiratory support and had higher ICU admission rates.
- Mortality increased with DPR, with a significantly shorter time to death in the highest DPR group (42% mortality).
- DPR showed 80.6% AUC for ICU admission (cut-off 1.606) and 82.6% AUC for mortality prediction (cut-off 2.284).
Conclusions:
- The D-dimer/platelet ratio (DPR) is a successful predictor of COVID-19 severity.
- DPR accurately forecasts ICU admission and mortality risk in coronavirus disease 2019 patients.
Introduction:
We aimed to examine the D-dimer/platelet ratio (DPR), which includes the combination of D-dimer and platelet measurements, which are two important markers in predicting prognosis, considering that it will show clinical progression.
Methods:
After ranking the patients from high to low according to DPR level, they were divided into three equal groups. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters between groups were compared according to DPR level. The consistency of DPR with other coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) biomarkers in the literature in terms of hospitalization and mortality in the intensive care unit was examined.
Results:
Complications such as renal failure, pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE), and stroke of the patients increased as the DPR increased. Patients in the third group with high DPR had higher oxygen demands from symptom onset, such as reservoir masks, high-flow oxygen, and mechanical ventilation. The first hospitalization location in the third group was determined as the intensive care unit. Mortality increased as the DPR value increased, and the time to death in patients in the third group was significantly shorter than the patients in the other two groups. While most of the patients in the first two groups recovered, 42% of the patients in the third group died. While the area under the curve was 80.6% in predicting DPR admission to the intensive care unit, the cut-off value was determined as 1.606. When the effect of DPR on predicting mortality was examined, the area under the curve for DPR was 82.6% and the cut-off value was determined as 2.284.
Conclusion:
DPR is successful in predicting the severity, ICU admission, and mortality of COVID-19 patients.
