Immune phenotyping based on neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and IgG predicts disease severity and outcome for patients with COVID-19

Bicheng Zhang; Xiaoyang Zhou; Chengliang Zhu; Fan Feng; Yanru Qiu; Jia Feng; Qingzhu Jia; Qibin Song; Bo Zhu; Jun Wang

All included patients with COVID-19 had been admitted to the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, from January 13, 2020 to March 1, 2020. A total of 222 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients were included in this study. The confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 was defined as a positive result by using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) detection for routine nasal and pharyngeal swab specimens or anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody assay. Serum samples were collected at admission or convalescent-phase and were dated from the day of initial symptom onset. We retrospectively evaluated their anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response, clinical disease severity, and clinical outcome. This study received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China (approval number: WDRY2020-K094). The Research Ethics Committee waived the requirement informed consent before the study started because of the urgent need to collect epidemiological and clinical data. We analyzed all the data anonymously.