Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic role of eosinophils count in COVID-19 patients. Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients admitted to our hospital with suspicion of COVID-19. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected on admission. Eosinopenia was defined as eosinophils < 100 cells/mm3. The outcomes of this study were the association between eosinophils count on admission and positive real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test and with suggestive chest computerized tomography (CT) of COVID-19 pneumonia. Results: A total of 174 patients was studied. Of those, 54% had positive rRT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2. A chest CT-scan was performed in 145 patients; 71% showed suggestive findings of COVID-19. Eosinophils on admission had a high predictive accuracy for positive rRT-PCR and suggestive chest CT-scan (area under the receiver operating characteristic—ROC curve, 0.84 (95% CIs 0.78–0.90) and 0.84 (95% CIs 0.77–0.91), respectively). Eosinopenia and high LDH were independent predictors of positive rRT-PCR, whereas eosinopenia, high body mass index and hypertension were predictors for suggestive CT-scan findings. Conclusions: Eosinopenia on admission could predict positive rRT-PCR test or suggestive chest CT-scan for COVID-19. This laboratory finding could help to identify patients at high-risk of COVID-19 in the setting where gold standard diagnostic methods are not available.
Highlights
At the end of December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) caused by a novel human coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, was reported in Wuhan, China [1]
The outcomes of this study were the association between eosinophils count on admission and positive real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test and with suggestive chest computerized tomography (CT) of COVID-19 pneumonia
The main diagnosis for patients with negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test are reported in the Table S1
Summary
At the end of December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) caused by a novel human coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, was reported in Wuhan, China [1]. This virus is an encapsulated β-coronavirus, which contains a single-stranded RNA as a nucleic material, with a size ranging from 26 to 32 Kbs in length [2]. This virus is most closely related to SARS-CoV, another acute-lung-injury causing coronavirus of zoonotic origin and shares a large proportion of its genome with the Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)-associated virus [3]. Fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath and myalgia are the most common symptoms [8]
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