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. 2020 Dec;42(6):761-765.
doi: 10.1111/ijlh.13288. Epub 2020 Jul 10.

Absolute lymphocyte count is a prognostic marker in Covid-19: A retrospective cohort review

Jason Wagner  1 , Andrew DuPont  2 , Scott Larson  2 , Brooks Cash  2 , Ahmad Farooq  2   3
Affiliations

Absolute lymphocyte count is a prognostic marker in Covid-19: A retrospective cohort review

Jason Wagner et al. Int J Lab Hematol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Prognostic factors are needed to aid clinicians in managing Covid-19, a respiratory illness. Lymphocytopenia has emerged as a simply obtained laboratory value that may correlate with prognosis.

Methods: In this article, we perform a retrospective cohort review study on patients admitted to one academic hospital for Covid-19 illness. We analyzed basic demographic, clinical, and laboratory data to understand the relationship between lymphocytopenia at the time of hospital admission and clinical outcomes.

Results: We discovered that lymphocyte count is lower (P = .01) and lymphocytopenia more frequent by an odds ratio of 3.40 (95% CI: 1.06-10.96; P = .04) in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a marker of disease severity, relative to those who were not. We additionally find that patients with lymphocytopenia were more likely to develop an acute kidney injury (AKI), a marker of organ failure, during admission by an odds ratio of 4.29 (95% CI: 1.35-13.57; P = .01).

Conclusion: This evidence supports the hypothesis that lymphocytopenia can be an early, useful, and easily obtained, prognostic factor in determining the clinical course and disease severity of a patient admitted to the hospital for Covid-19.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 infection; acute kidney injury; covid-19; lymphopenia; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared for JW, AD, SL, AF, and BC.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Scatter plot for Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC)‐based ICU admission status (patient outcome). Red bars represent standard deviation, and red dot represents the mean. Data points are represented by black dots. Abbreviations: ICU, patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit; IP, patients admitted to the In‐Patient unit, not the ICU
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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