D-Dimer, Ferritin levels linked to mucormycosis

HYDERABAD: A new study by ENT Hospital, Hyderabad, has found that Covid-19 patients who had higher D-Dimer and Ferritin Serum levels were more likely to get Mucormycosis than others. The retrospective study titled, ‘Role of Covid-19 inflammatory markers in Rhino-Orbito-Cerebral Mucormycosis: A case study in predisposed patients at a designated nodal centre’, was published in the Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery.

The study analysed 300 patients of the hospital, treated during the April-June 2021 period, and found that nearly 51 per cent had high D-Dimer and 75 per cent had high Ferritin Serum levels. These two levels are commonly used as diagnostic tools to gauge the extent of inflammation in the body caused by the immune response to Covid-19.

“High Ferritin Serum levels have been proved to facilitate fungal thriving. D-Dimer on the other hand is a fibrin degradation product, high levels of which reflect the process of active clotting. These two markers thus caused mucormycosis to evolve into an epidemic after the second wave of Covd-19,” said the study. 
Researchers further found that Ferritin levels were higher in those patients with susceptibility factor of diabetes. D-Dimer levels were also high in diabetic patients.

The study thus states that elevated levels of these two and use of oxygen/high diabetes made people more vulnerable to mucor-mycosis. The research effectively suggests that checking for these two markers in patients can help find out who is likely to get the deadly mucormycosis disease. “Though a majority of the subjects have had one or more of predisposing factors, like diabetes history, the role of high D-Dimer and Ferritin levels, coupled with oxygen use, is significant in Covid-associated mucormycosis,” says the study.

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