Clinical and hematological characteristics of 88 patients with COVID‐19

Zhang, Hongmei; Cao, Xiaocui; Kong, Man; Mao, Xiaoli; Huang, Lifeng; He, Panwen; Pan, Shiyao; Li, Jin; Lu, Zhongxin

INTRODUCTION: To retrospectively analyze epidemiological, clinical and hematological characteristics of COVID‐19 patients. METHODS: The demographic, symptoms, and physiological parameters of 88 patients were collected and analyzed. The performance of complete blood count (CBC) indexes for monitoring and predicting the severity of COVID‐19 in patients was evaluated by analyzing and comparing CBC results among different COVID‐19 patient groups. RESULTS: White blood cells (WBCs), the neutrophil percentage (Neu%), absolute neutrophil count (Neu#), and neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were significantly higher in the critical group than in the other three groups (P < .05), while the lymphocyte percentage (Lym%), monocyte percentage (Mon%), lymphocyte count (Lym#), and lymphocyte‐to‐monocyte ratio (LMR) were significantly lower in the critical group than in the other three groups (P < .05). WBCs, the Neu%, Neu#, NLR, and neutrophil‐to‐monocyte ratio (NMR) were significantly higher in the severe group than in the mild and moderate groups (P < .05), while the Lym% was significantly lower in the severe group than in the mild and moderate groups (P < .05). The Mon%, Lym#, and LMR were significantly lower in the severe group than in the moderate group (P < .05). Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to differentiate severe and nonsevere patients, the areas under the curve (AUCs) for the NLR, Neu%, and Lym% were 0.733, 0.732, and 0.730, respectively. When differentiating critical patients from noncritical patients, the AUCs for the NLR, Neu%, and Lym% were 0.832, 0.831, and 0.831. CONCLUSIONS: The NLR is valuable for differentiating and predicting patients who will become critical within 4 weeks after the onset of COVID‐19.