Reduction of lymphocyte at early stage elevates severity and death risk of COVID-19 patients: a hospital-based case-cohort study

Jun Fei; Lin Fu; Ying Li; Hui-Xian Xiang; Ying Xiang; Meng-Die Li; Fang-Fang Liu; De-xiang Xu; Hui Zhao

All the 192 patients (49.5% males) aged between 22 to 87 years were included in the analysis. The normal range of lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood is from 0.8 to 4 (10 9 /L). The demographic and clinical characteristics of all COVID-19 patients are showed in Table 1 . Patients with high and low counts of lymphocyte (split at the low thresholds, 08×10 9 /L) were on difference in gender, comorbidities including smoker, diabetes, hypertension, hepatic disease, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease and other chronic disease. Clinical symptoms, such as fever, diarrhea, fatigue and cough, as well as injured pulmonary nodes (bilateral lungs, single left lung, single right lung) were no difference in COVID-19 patients with normal lymphocyte and lymphocyte reduction (Table 1) . Nevertheless, the number of patients under 49 years old with lymphocyte reduction was less than those with normal lymphocyte 2. Older COVID-19 patients are more susceptible to lymphocyte reduction