Association Of Biochemical Parameters Of COVID Susceptibility In Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) Positive Subjects

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is viral pneumonia that originated in Wuhan, China in 2019. The virus spread throughout the world in the form of a pandemic and public health emergency was declared by WHO in March 2020. People with underlying pathological conditions such as tuberculosis are more susceptible to COVID-19. This study was conducted to investigate tuberculosis as a risk factor for COVID.

Methods: IGRA testing of subjects, presenting symptoms of tuberculosis and those advised for IGRA by clinicians, was done and socio-demographic and clinical data were collected by questionnaires. The data collected during the study were organized using Excel spreadsheets and subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 16.

Results: The findings of our study support the fact that TB patients are more susceptible to COVID-19. We found that biochemical markers including uric acid (p=0.022), urea (p=0.035), bilirubin (p=0.001), alkaline phosphatase (p=0.046), and potassium ions (p=0.000) can be used as diagnostic markers in TB-COVID co-infectious state as these were significantly associated with COVID in IGRA positive subjects when analysed by the ROC curve.

Conclusion: Within the framework of our study, biomarkers, including urea, creatinine, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), bilirubin, and potassium ions exhibited significant associations with COVID-19. However, further longitudinal studies should be undertaken to investigate the status of these biomarkers on an extended number of active and latent TB patients to validate and potentially employ common biomarkers in diagnostic assays for the co-infection of TB and COVID-19.