Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio and platelet lymphocyte ratio as a marker for disease severity in children with COVID-19

Background: It had been observed that there is relationship of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) with disease severity in children with COVID-19 and post-COVID, multisystem inflammatory disease in children (MIS-C).  Study conducted to determine NLR and PLR correlation with this disease severity. Methods: Prospective descriptive analytical study conducted at the children’s hospital and university of child health sciences, Lahore. Consecutive confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and post-COVID, MIS-C diagnosed on the basis of RT-PCR from nasopharyngeal swab and antibody test admitted from March 2020 to October 2021 were included through consecutive sampling. Complete blood (CBC) was done and NLR and PLR was determined Results: Majority 198 (74.2%) of the 267 patients had a diagnosis of COVID-19 and 69 (25.8%) were post-COVID MIS-C. There was a male preponderance 177 (66.3%) and the mean age was 6.1±4.7 years (95% CI: 5.62-6.74). Majority children had mild disease 80 (30%), 34 (12.7%) were critical and there were 37 (13.8%) deaths. Underlying comorbidity was present in 55 (20.6%). As the severity of symptoms changed from asymptomatic to severe disease, there was a significant rise of mean NLR from 1.88±1.40 to 5.47±4.77 respectively (p<0.001). PLR however, failed to show any kind of association with severity of the symptoms (p=0.922). Conclusions: NLR served as a marker of disease severity among pediatric patients suffering from COVID-19 and MIS-C. However, PLR failed to show any relation with disease severity.