SynthesisMedicine2020
Association of elevated inflammatory markers and severe COVID-19: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 182 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Association between chemosensory dysfunctions and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Comparison of clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients undergoing early versus late intubation from initial hospital admission: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Respiratory investigation · 2022Pooled it
- Corticosteroid use in ARDS and its application to evolving therapeutics for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review.Pharmacotherapy · 2022Pooled it
- Association of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer concentration on the severity of COVID-19 cases with or without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism · 2022Pooled it
- Factors associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Anaesthesia · 2021Pooled it
- Elevated Procalcitonin Is Positively Associated with the Severity of COVID-19: A Meta-Analysis Based on 10 Cohort Studies.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Pooled it
- Serum Prealbumin Concentrations, COVID-19 Severity, and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Gut microbial allies and adversaries in SARS-CoV-2 infection.Current research in microbial sciences · 2026Article
- Admission Serum Inflammatory and Injury Biomarkers Are Associated with In-Hospital Mortality in Neurological Inpatients with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection: The Brain-COVID Cohort Study.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Association between hypertension and risk of respiratory failure and mortality in patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study with predictive model development.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Increasing inflammatory biomarkers are associated with mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients despite anti-inflammatory treatment.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Observational
- Predictors of Unfavorable Outcomes in COVID-19-Related Sepsis: A Prospective Cohort Study.Viruses · 2025Article
- Determination of Serum Levels of Interleukin-6 and the Trace Element Zinc According to the Clinical Status of Patients With COVID-19.Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2025Article
- High-Dose Corticosteroids in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study from Suriname.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
- The Mediating Roles of Lung Function Traits and Inflammatory Factors on the Associations between Measures of Obesity and Risk of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Autonomic Imbalance and Elevated Inflammatory Cytokines in Long COVID: A Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2024Article
- Serological Biomarkers in Individuals with Interstitial Lung Disease after SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Association with Post-COVID-19 Symptoms.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Predictive value of inflammatory factors and lymphocyte counts in tracheal intubation and death after infection with COVID-19.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Immune Stimulation with Imiquimod to Best Face SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Prevent Long COVID.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Our study aimed to assess the existing evidence on whether severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with elevated inflammatory markers.The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, and China Science and Technology Journal databases were searched to identify studies published between January 1 and April 21, 2020 that assayed inflammatory markers in COVID-19 patients. Three reviewers independently examined the literature, extracted relevant data, and assessed the risk of publication bias before including the meta-analysis studies.Fifty-six studies involving 8719 COVID-19 patients were identified. Meta-analysis showed that patients with severe disease showed elevated levels of white blood cell count (WMD: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.78-1.52), C-reactive protein (WMD: 38.85, 95% CI: 31.19-46.52), procalcitonin (WMD: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.06-0.11), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (WMD: 10.15, 95% CI: 5.03-15.46), interleukin-6 (WMD: 23.87, 95% CI: 15.95-31.78), and interleukin-10 (WMD: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.97-2.28). Similarly, COVID-19 patients who died during follow-up showed significantly higher levels of white blood cell count (WMD: 4.11, 95% CI: 3.25-4.97), C-reactive protein (WMD: 74.18, 95% CI: 56.63-91.73), procalcitonin (WMD: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.11-0.42), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (WMD: 10.94, 95% CI: 4.79-17.09), and interleukin-6 (WMD: 59.88, 95% CI: 19.46-100.30) than survivors.Severe COVID-19 is associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers than a mild disease, so tracking these markers may allow early identification or even prediction of disease progression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.