An Emerging Marker Predicting The Severity of Covid-19: Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Count Ratio

Abstract

Objective: To assess the efficacy of neutrophil-lymphocyte count ratio in predicting the severity of covid-19 Materials and Methods: The patients with positive results for COVID-19 were shifted to COVID ITC, CMH, Multan. The clinical histories of confirmed patients of COVID-19 during February 2020 to May 2021 were reviewed. The patients were divided into 4 classes, mild, common, severe, and fatal, according to guidelines of COVID-19 i.e., trial version 7. Data was collected regarding age, sex, smoking history, temperature, epidemiological history, clinical symptoms, and laboratory findings of all included patients including NLCR. Results: The mean NLCR of Mild and Severe Group was 2.77±1.23 and 20.31±4.45, respectively, (p=0.000). (Table. II). The area under the curves of NLCR was larger than neut, suggesting the optimal performance of NLCR with cut-off value 5.89. The sensitivity and specificity of NLCR was 85% and 95%, respectively. (Table. III). Conclusion: It can be concluded that an increase in NLCR levels can indicate that the covid-19 disease is moving towards exacerbation. NLCR can be recommended as a novel and highly sensitive and specific indicator for severity prediction in Covid-19 patients. Keywords: Emerging, Marker, Severity, Covid-19, Neutrophils, Lymphocytes, Ratio