Association of Serum Ferritin Level with Severity of COVID-19 Infection During Third Trimester of Pregnancy

Background: World has been passing through COVID-19 pandemic by a newly emergent coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 since December 2019 and officially declared as a pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020. Till mid-March 2022, around 460 million people already suffered from COVID-19, among them around 6 million people died and globally death rate was 2%. In Bangladesh till mid-March 2022, around 1.9 million people suffered from COVID-19 and around 29 thousand people had died. As pregnancy is a physiological immunosuppressive state, so pregnant women might be more susceptible to this infection. Studies on COVID-19 during pregnancy have showed, this infection occurred more during third trimester of pregnancy (about 64%). Reviewing several other studies on COVID-19 infection we found that, elevated serum ferritin level was associated with its severity; and ferritin could effectively discriminate severity and non-severity with sensitivity 96% and specificity 70%. We conducted this study to evaluate association of serum ferritin level with severity of COVID-19 infection during third trimester of pregnancy. Objectives: To evaluate association between rise of serum ferritin level and severity of COVID-19 infection during third trimester of pregnancy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, COVID-19 Unit, BSMMU and DMCH. Sampling method was purposive. Total 77 cases were included in this study after matching eligibility criteria. After collecting intravenous blood, serum ferritin level was measured. Results: Among 77 cases of third trimester COVID-19, 19 cases (24.7%) were asymptomatic, 31 cases (40.3%) were mild, 19 cases (24.7%) were moderate and 8 cases (10.4%) were severe COVID-19. Non- severe COVID-19 group included 50 cases of asymptomatic & mild COVID-19; and their mean serum ferritin level was 51.48 ng/ml. Severe COVID-19 group included 27 cases of moderate & severe COVID-19; and their mean serum ferritin level ......