Characteristics of peripheral blood differential counts in hospitalized patients with COVID‐19

Pakos, Irene; Lo, Kevin Bryan; Salacup, Grace; Pelayo, Jerald; Bhargav, Ruchika; Peterson, Eric; Gul, Fahad; DeJoy, Robert; Albano, Jeri; Patarroyo‐Aponte, Gabriel; Rangaswami, Janani; Azmaiparashvili, Zurab

BACKGROUND: A lot remains unknown about the features and laboratory findings that may predict worse outcomes in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). The aim of this study was to evaluate the difference in complete blood count parameters and differential counts in patients hospitalized with COVID‐19 who survived compared to those who died. DESIGN: We performed a single center retrospective study including 242 patients with confirmed COVID‐19. We described the characteristics of the complete blood count parameters in these patients. Mann Whitney‐U test was used to compare hematologic parameters of patients who died and those who survived; multivariate logistic regression was used to look for associations with mortality. RESULTS: Patients with COVID‐19 who died had significantly lower median absolute monocyte count (AMC) (0.4 vs 0.5, p=0.039) and median platelet count (169 vs 213, p=0.009) compared to those who survived. Patients who died had a significantly higher neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (6.4 vs 4.5, p = 0.001). The NLR was positively associated with death (OR=1.038; 95% CI, 1.003 to 1.074, p=0.031) while AMC was inversely associated with death (OR=0.200; 95% CI, 0.052 to 0.761, p=0.018). CONCLUSION: Among patients with COVID‐19, a lower AMC and higher NLR are associated with higher mortality.