Association of Urine Levels of C-Reactive Protein with Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Pneumonia: A Pilot Study

Finding relevant biomarkers as a potential predictor of severity for patients hospitalized with community acquired pneumonia (CAP), in addition to the clinical scoring system, could advance progress towards more effective patient management. The inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP), which is elevated in the pathogenesis of many infectious diseases, may be a key biomarker target for CAP. Previous studies have shown that serum CRP may be a useful diagnostic marker for pneumonia in hospitalized patients with acute respiratory symptoms. The main aims of this study were to determine the correlation between serum and urine CRP levels in hospitalized patients with CAP, and any correlation with patient outcomes. Our laboratory employed a commercially available human high sensitive CRP ELISA kit to check the level of CRP in the corresponding patient urine sample. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between patient serum and urine CRP levels. In addition, we showed the correlation of urine CRP levels with certain patient comorbidities, time to clinical stability, length of patient hospital stay, and mortality