Background and Objectives:
India has emerged as the second worst hit nation by the Coronavirus pandemic in terms of total number of cases. Our data on hematological and inflammatory markers associated with COVID-19 is very limited. This study was conducted to assess the utility of various biomarkers in identifying severe disease.
Materials and Methods:
All confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted in our tertiary care centre from 1
st
March 2021 to 31
st
March 2021 were enrolled in the study. They were categorized into severe and non-severe disease categories based on pre-decided criteria. Their complete blood count parameters, D-dimer levels, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin and Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values were retrieved.
Statistical Analysis:
All parameters were expressed as Mean ± Standard deviation for the two groups of patients. Student's
t
-test was used to test significance of the above markers between severe and non- severe disease. (
P
value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant).
Results:
A total of 150 COVID RT-PCR positive patients were evaluated. The patients with higher Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC), Neutrophil to lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), D-dimer levels and raised serum CRP, LDH, ferritin along with lymphocytopenia were associated with severe disease (
P
< 0.05). Hemoglobin, total leucocyte count and platelet count showed no correlation with disease severity.
Conclusion:
These biomarkers associated with disease severity especially NLR, PLR, D-dimer and serum CRP levels could be used to triage patients at the time of admission thereby identifying those requiring intensive care and enabling optimal resource utilization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.