Introduction Acute presentations of COVID-19 infection vary, ranging from asymptomatic carriage through to severe clinical manifestations including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Longer term sequelae of COVID-19 infection includes lung fibrosis in a proportion of patients. Krebs von den Lungen 6 (KL-6) is a mucin like glycoprotein that has been proposed as a marker of pulmonary epithelial cell injury. We sought to determine whether KL-6 was a marker of 1) the severity of acute COVID-19 infection, or 2) the persistence of symptoms/radiological abnormalities at medium term follow up. Methods Prospective single centre observational study. Results Convalescent KL-6 levels were available for 93 patients (male 63%, mean age 55.8 years) who attended an 12-week follow up appointment after being admitted to hospital with COVID-19. For 67 patients a baseline KL-6 result was available for comparison. There was no significant correlations between baseline KL-6 and the admission CXR severity score or clinical severity NEWS score. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the baseline KL-6 level and an initial requirement for oxygen on admission or the severity of acute infection as measured at 28 days. There was no significant difference in the 12-week KL-6 level and the presence or absence of subjective breathlessness but patients with abnormal CT scans at 12 weeks had significantly higher convalescent KL-6 levels compared to the remainder of the cohort (median 1101 IU/ml vs 409 IU/ml). Conclusions The association between high KL-6 levels at 12 weeks and persisting CT abnormalities (GGO/fibrosis), is a finding that requires further exploration. Whether KL-6 may help differentiate those patients with persisting dyspnoea due to complications rather than deconditioning or dysfunctional breathing alone, is an important future research question.
【초록키워드】 Respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome, severity, hospital, Infection, fibrosis, oxygen, observational study, clinical manifestations, Cohort, Asymptomatic, COVID-19 infection, persistence, acute infection, CT scan, Prospective, male, Patient, Complication, age, Lung fibrosis, glycoprotein, mucin, convalescent, correlation, Admission, patients, Dyspnoea, association, acute respiratory distress, marker, Clinical severity, Injury, CXR, epithelial cell, on admission, respiratory distress, clinical manifestation, abnormal CT scans, presence or absence, pulmonary epithelial cell, deconditioning, breathlessness, cell injury, significant difference, no significant difference, medium, syndrome, help, acute COVID-19, finding, abnormality, Follow up appointment, radiological abnormalities, Research question, initial, Result, include, proportion, median, determine, absence, significantly higher, baseline, with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 disease severity, radiological abnormality,