THE ROLE OF INDICATORS OF GENERAL BLOOD ANALYSIS IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE FORECAST OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE IN HOSPITAL PATIENTS

Abstract

Early clinical diagnosis is the key to symptomatic treatment, urgent referral to the intensive care unit and isolation, if necessary, of a patient with COVID-19. Serum and hemogram analysis are routine, rapid, and cheap techniques to verify the diagnosis. Inflammatory biomarkers derived from peripheral blood, such as leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, and their ratios, have been described as independent predictors for the course and prognosis of coronavirus disease.

Aim: to calculate the indicators of the general blood test to predict the severity of coronavirus disease and the risk of mortality.

Materials and methods. A retrospective exploratory data analysis of 105 case histories with PCR confirmed coronavirus disease was performed. Patients who spent 11 days and more in Transcarpathian Regional Infectious Hospital in October-December of 2021  were included. Parameters of general blood count test performed on an automatic hematology analyzer type Abacus junior were compared on first, fifth and tenth day after hospitalization. Statistical processing was in Jamovi v. 1.6.

Conclusions. The marker of a favorable course of the disease after hospitalization is the increase in number of lymphocytes and platelets in the dynamics and the absence of leukocytosis. The absolute number of leukocytes that exceeds the norm on the first day after hospitalization or an increase in the number of leukocytes by 50 percent or more after the 5th day of hospitalization is a prognostic marker of deterioration. The combination of increasing leukocytosis and lymphopenia usually indicates a transition to a severe form of the disease and a probable lethal outcome.