The Role of Hemogram and Inflammatory Markers in The Diagnosis of SARS-COV-2

Abstract

Objective: In the last months of 2019, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of a series of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan, China. It spread rapidly and caused a global epidemic. The disease has been termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) over time. This study aims to use it for diagnostic purposes by comparing hemogram (CBC) parameters, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and inflammatory marker ratios such as Neutrophil/Lymphocyte (NLR), Thrombocyte/Lymphocyte (TLO) with the PCR test results of patients with a pre-diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in the outpatient clinic. Materials and Methods: PCR test was performed on 1329 patients who applied to the Internal Medicine outpatient clinic of Istanbul Medipol University Faculty of Medicine with symptoms similar to SARS-CoV-2, and simultaneous CBC and CRP were requested. 515 individuals with positive test results and 814 individuals with negative results were divided into two groups. CBC, CRP, NLR, TLR, Thrombocyte/Neutrophil (TNO) and CRP/Lymphocyte (CLO) ratios were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Age, CRP, TNO, TLO, CRP/Neutrophil (CNO), CLO, CRP/Thrombocyte (CTO) and CRP/Monocyte (CMO) were significantly higher in the group with positive PCR test, however, leukocytes, thrombocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, eosinophil, basophil and Thrombocyte/CRP (TCO) were found to be significantly lower. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of hemoglobin, monocytes and NLR (p˂0.05). When the multiple binary logistic regression model is applied, it is seen that leukocytes, thrombocyte, eosinophils, basophils, CMO and TCO show a significant decrease in PCR positive status, while hemoglobin, monocytes and TLR increase (the overall accuracy of the model is 78.3%). Conclusions: It was concluded that a total of nine parameters can be used for diagnosis in SARS-CoV-2 infection.