The clinical study on the relationship between serum albumin concentration and lymphocyte levels in patients with 2019-novel coronavirus pneumonia

Abstract

Objective To explore the relationship between different serum albumin and lymphocyte levels in patients with 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia (COVID-19). Methods A retrospective study was performed to identify the characteristics of the clinical data of 205 COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized in the Happy Street of Hanchuan People's Hospital, Xiaogan, Hubei Province from January 24 to February 12, 2020, including their general information, serum albumin (ALB) levels, lymphocyte counts (LYM), percentage of lymphocytes (LYM%) and other laboratory parameter levels. Low ALB group and normal ALB group were demarcated by the concentration of 35g/L, further to identify the differences of LYM and LYM% levels and the incidence of LYM and LYM% decline at different ALB levels between groups,as well as the correlation between ALB and LYM, LYM% levels in hypoalbuminemia conditions . Results 17.5% of COVID-19 patients were associated with hypoalbuminemia. The levels of LYM and LYM% in the low ALB group were significantly lower than those in the normal ALB group (P <0.001). The incidence of LYM and LYM% decline in the low ALB group was significantly higher than those in the normal ALB group (P <0.001). The levels of LYM and LYM% in the low ALB group were significantly positively correlated with serum ALB concentrations (P <0.05). Conclusions The decrease of lymphocyte levels in COVID-19 patients may be correlated to hypoalbuminemia. COVID-19 patients complicated by hypoalbuminemia should be actively intervened to maintain serum albumin in the normal range. Key words: Novel coronavirus; COVID-19; Albumins; Hypoalbuminemia; Infectious diseases; Lymphocyte count; Inflammatory factor; Treatment, integration