• Colin J Crooks, Joe West, Joanne R Morling, Mark Simmonds, Irene Juurlink, Steve Briggs, Simon Cruickshank, Susan Hammond-Pears, Dominick Shaw, Timothy R Card, and Andrew Fogarty.
• Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, Nottingham, UK, NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham, UK and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK.
• Clin Med (Lond). 2022 May 1; 22 (3): 192196192-196.

ObjectiveTo determine the maximal response of the temperature and inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and how these are modified by age.MethodsParticipants were patients admitted to hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection. For each participant, the maximal temperature and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) were identified and stratified by age. In a secondary analysis, these were compared in patients treated before and after dexamethasone.ResultsMean maximal temperature varied by age (p<0.001; ANOVA) with the highest mean maximal temperature of 37.3°C observed in patients aged 30-49 years and decreasing maximal mean temperatures in the older age groups, with the lowest measure of 36.8°C observed in individuals aged 90-99 years. The mean maximal serum CRP also varied across age groups (p<0.001; ANOVA) and increased with age across all age categories from 34.5 mg/dL (95% confidence interval (CI) 22.0-47.0) for individuals aged 20-29 years to 77.6 mg/dL (95% CI 72.0-83.2) in those aged 80-89 years. After dexamethasone became standard treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia, mean maximal CRP decreased by 17 mg/dL (95% CI -22 to -11).ConclusionAge modifies both maximal temperature and systemic inflammatory response in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.© Royal College of Physicians 2022. All rights reserved.

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