Bellala Venkata Anuradha Devi1, Cigiri Saritha2, Ravuri Swarupa3, Jeshtadi Anunayi4
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.
