Haematological Parameters And Outcome In Hospitalized Patients With Covid-19: A Developing Country Experience

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a multisystem disorder and haematological abnormalities are frequently documented in affected patients.This retrospective study included 549 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 from 1st June to 15th July 2020 at Pak Emirates hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan. p0.05 was considered statistically significant.Median age was 60 years (range 12-94 years), males 442 (80.5%) and females 107 (19.5%). There was no patient with mild illness, 181 (32.9%) had moderate, 158 (28.7%) severe and 210 (38.2%) patients had critical disease. Patients with severe and critical disease had lower absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and platelets (p0.001 for both) while higher white blood cell count (WBC), neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and lactate dehydrogenase levels (LDH) levels (all p0.001). Overall survival of study cohort was 83.2% (n=457). Median haemoglobin and platelet count were significantly lower (p0.001) while WBC, ANC, NLR, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), ferritin, IL-6, LDH were significantly higher (p0.001) for patients who died. On multivariate logistic regression analysis WBC count10x109/l (odds ratio [OR] 2.19 [95% CI 1.3-4.2] p=0.01), NLR9 (OR 3.4 [95% CI 0.87-6.8], p0.001), platelets150x109/l (OR 3.9 [95% CI 1.4-9.8] p0.001), CRP100; (OR 4.1[95% CI 0.78-10.9] p0.001) and ferritin1000 (OR 5.3 [95% CI 1.9- 13.5], p0.001) were associated with increased risk of death in patients with COVID-19.Monitoring of haematological, coagulation and inflammatory parameters provide reliable, convenient, rapid and cost-effective method for predicting disease severity, complications and prognosis of COVID-19 patients.