The influence of COVID-19 on routine hematological parameters of hospitalized patients
Siska Blomme, Lena Smets, Marc Van Ranst, Nancy Boeckx, Christine Van Laer
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and soon spread around the entire world. As no effective treatment is known, prediction of disease severity is very important in order to estimate a patients outcome. Aim of this study was to evaluate routine hematology parameters in time after admission. METHODS: /L), neutrophil count (NEU, %), eosinophil count (EO, %), lymphocyte count (LYM, %) and monocyte count (MONO, %). RESULTS: Deceased COVID-19 patients had significant lower platelet count, higher leukocyte/neutrophil count, and lower eosinophil/lymphocyte/monocyte count compared to recovered patients. Especially lymphocyte count showed important differences; they were significantly lower between day 9 and 12 after admission making this time window important in predicting clinical worsening of a patient. CONCLUSION: Patients with COVID-19 with poor outcome showed significant differences in results of routine hematological parameters compared with patients that recovered. Especially lymphocyte count can be helpful in the prediction of a patients outcome.