English

Abstract

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID - 19) as a global public health pandemic. Clinical and laboratory biomarkers to predict the severity of corona virus 2019 are essential in this pandemic. Lymphocyte count has been a marker of interest in order to investigate the association of lymphocyte count and severity of COVID-19. We would like to analyse the relationship between absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) & COVID-19 disease severity. METHODS We performed a retrospective study on patients admitted to Government general hospital, Suryapet for COVID-19 illness from September 1st 2020 to September 16th 2020. Age, gender and complete blood count of patients admitted in the hospital was collected. Haemoglobin, total leucocyte count (TLC), absolute neutrophilic count (ANC), absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and platelet counts were compared between ICU and Non-ICU groups and comparison of absolute lymphocyte counts in each group - ICU alive, ICU death and non-ICU groups was carried out. RESULTS 134 patients who were admitted in the hospital were analysed. Mean age and gender were compared between ICU and Non-ICU groups. We compared ALC between ICU alive, ICU death and non-ICU groups. Mean ALC in ICU death group was 0.81, in ICU alive group 1.04 and in non-ICU as 1.75. We found that patients with disease severity have lower absolute lymphocyte counts. In addition to this we also found that there was neutrophilia and lower haemoglobin levels in ICU patients. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that lymphopenia, defined as absolute lymphocyte count less than 1.1 x 109 /L may be useful in predicting the severity of COVID-19 illness. KEYWORDS COVID-19, Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC), Lymphopenia, SARS COV2