Table 3.

The association between inflammation-related indicators and disease severity in patients with COVID-19.

Inflammation-related indicators	Number of studies	Participants	Mean difference/Std. mean difference (95% CI)	P	Effects model	Heterogeneity
						I2	Ph
Procalcitonin	16	2,070	0.78 (0.34, 1.22)	<0.001	REM	93	<0.001
C-reactive protein	20	2,591	41.02 (33.32, 48.71)	<0.001	REM	73	<0.001
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate	5	706	18.37 (6.59, 30.15)	0.002	REM	84	<0.001
Interleukin-6	3	951	0.72 (0.13, 1.30)	0.02	REM	94	<0.001
Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio	6	1,141	0.85 (0.56, 1.15)	<0.001	REM	67	0.009

CI, confidence intervals; REM, random-effects model; P_h, p-value of Q-test for heterogeneity.