Jingjing Li,1 Yu Zhang,2 Rui Wu,1 Guodong Ma,1 Li Sheng,1 Yun Feng,1 Yang Han,1 Lina Zhang,1 Janfeng Guo,1 Rongbo Li1 

1Department of Infectious Diseases, Hohhot First Hospital, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 010000, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People’s Hospital, 010000, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Jingjing Li, Department of Infectious Diseases, Hohhot First Hospital, No. 148, South Second Ring Road, Zhaojun Road, Yuquan District, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 010000, Tel +86-18047422188, Email 1151664990@qq.com

Purpose: To explore the value of different inflammatory markers in predicting the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Patients and Methods: A total of 116 patients with COVID-19 in patients with T2DM were collected from December 2022 to March 2023 and were divided into a mild case group (77 cases) and a severe case group (39 cases). The ratio of neutrophil to lymphocyte (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil to lymphocyte × platelet ratio (NLPR), lymphocyte ratio to monocyte (LMR), systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI), systemic inflammatory index (SII), systemic inflammatory composite index (AISI), procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were compared between the two groups. The screening effect of each variable on the progression of the disease was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
Results: NLR, PLR, NLPR, MLR, SIRI, SII, AISI, LDH, CRP and PCT in severe case group were higher than those in mild case group (P< 0.05), and LMR was lower than those in mild case group (P< 0.05). ROC curve analysis further demonstrated the diagnostic performance of these biomarkers, with PCT having the largest area under the ROC curve (AUCROC) of 0.83.
Conclusion: NLR, PLR, NLPR, SIRI, SII, LDH, CRP and PCT demonstrate greater reliability in diagnostic value and clinical utility for predicting the severity of COVID-19 in patients with T2DM.

Keywords: COVID-19, T2DM, inflammatory index, LDH, CRP, PCT