Simple Urine Test May Be Capable of Predicting COVID-19 Case Severity

Analyzing a COVID-19 patient’s urine sample can help treatment providers predict how severe the case will be. That is the finding of a new study created by researchers from Detroit-based Wayne State University. Such an assay would be a useful tool for screening hospital patients and preserving treatment resources. The Diagnostic Challenge COVID-19 affects different people different ways. Some people experience no symptoms at all. But others may experience pneumonia with multiple organ failure, and death. Early identification of critical patients requiring more aggressive intervention could prove instrumental in reducing COVID-19 deaths. One of the most promising leads in that regard is the recognition that in many severe COVID-19 cases, patients produce cytokine proteins at elevated levels. These so-called “cytokine storms” cause inflammation in multiple organs, including the heart, lungs and brain. Accordingly, urine tests that measure cytokine levels may be effective in predicting case severity. Such tests are currently used for screening urinary tract infections, interstitial cystitis and other illnesses. The Wayne State Study With this in mind, the Wayne State research team set out to determine whether COVID-19 biomarkers were capable of predicting which individuals will develop cytokine storms. The study compared urine cytokine levels in 17 patients […]