Background: The emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants is
increasing pediatric COVID-19 cases. The blood cytometry (BC) values,
neutrophil-lymphocyte index (NLI), and platelet-lymphocyte index (PLI)
reflect inflammatory response intensity. The aim was to evaluate if BC,
NLI, and PLI are predictors of the COVID-19 severity in children with
high-risk pathologies. Methods: A retrospective nested case-control
study of 60 pediatric patients with COVID-19 was carried out to evaluate
the relationship of BC, NLI, and PLI with clinical status at the COVID
area discharge. Patients with a severe or critical condition at
discharge and those who died during hospitalization were classified as
cases. Asymptomatic patients or those with a mild to moderate disease at
discharge were considered controls. We used absolute frequencies,
percentages, medians, ranges, X2 test, Fisher’s exact test, and Odds
Ratio with 95% CI for statistical analysis. Results: We included 32
male and 28 female patients, median age of 6.5 years (range 0-14). All
had high-risk diseases, such as Leukemia (64.4%), Down syndrome and
Leukemia (8.8%), or a solid neoplasm (13.3%). Seventeen (28.3%) were
cases and 43 (71.7%) controls. Fourteen (23.3%) died. No BC value was
associated with illness severity, except for thrombocytosis (OR 6.30,
95% CI 1.03-38.48, p=0.048). Erythropenia was identified as a
protective factor for illness severity (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.03-0.86,
p=0.034). Conclusion: A decrease in different BC values was the most
frequent abnormality. Thrombocytosis was associated with COVID-19
severity. These results may apply to children with high-risk pathologies
such as those in this series.
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