The relationship between the results of coagulation profile and severity of pulmonary involvement in COVID-19 patients

Ebrahimi, M.; Abiri, S.; Dost, E. R.; Rahmanian, F.; Foroughian, M.; Abbasi, A.; Abdi, M. H.; Keshavarz, P.; Hatami, N.; Kalani, N.; Haghbeen, M.

Introduction: COVID-19 is currently a global pandemic, and coagulation-related mortality has been widely reported in patients suffering from it. Objective: this article aimed to investigate the coagulation profile of COVID-19 patients. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted using a retrospective research design. We recruited patients with COVID-19 admitted to a hospital from June 15th to July 7th, 2020. Upon patients’ entering a blood sample was drawn from each patient for assessing patient’s coagulation profile (PT, PTT, INR, Platelet count);and a chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan was performed for each patient. The study patients were divided in to sever group (CO-RADS score 5) and non-sever group (CO-RADS score <5). Results: Thirty-six patients (20 males and 16 females) with a mean age of 54.7±17.5 years were studied. Of them, 11 cases (30.56%) had severe pulmonary involvement. Also, the coagulation profiles were longer in the severe group than non-sever group. As well, the means of platelet count that were 232.440 per microliter in the non-severe group and 289.180 per microliter in the severe and non-sever groups, respectively;but still not statistically significant (p>0.05). The Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) for PT and INR was 0.615 and 0.611, respectively. The AUC for platelet count was 0.680 (95% CI: 0.501 to 0.859) and had an acceptable discriminating power. Conclusions: In this study, we did not find any statistically significant relationship between the results of coagulation tests and the severity of pulmonary involvement according to HRCT scan findings in COVID-19 patients. But further analyses suggest that, except PTT, the other coagulation tests (PT, INR, and platelet count) may discriminate severe COVID-19 patients. © 2021 Tehran University of Medical Sciences.