Abstract
Introduction: Symptoms of COVID-19 vary in severity and presentation. When admitting patients to the hospital, it is desirable to isolate patients with COVID-19 from those without the disease. However, reliably identifying patients with COVID-19 in the emergency department before hospital admission is often limited by the speed and availability of testing. Previous studies determined a low lymphocyte count is commonly found in patients with COVID-19. We sought to explore the sensitivity of absolute lymphocyte count in patients presenting to the emergency department requiring subsequent hospitalization who were found to have COVID-19.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 312 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to the hospital from the emergency department. The absolute lymphocyte count for these patients was used to calculate sensitivities at various cut-off values. The relationships between absolute lymphocyte count and variables, including age, sex, need for intubation, and mortality, were also explored.
Results: Cut-off values for absolute lymphocyte count ranged from 1.1 K/uL to 2.0 K/uL, with sensitivities of 72% and 94%, respectively. Additionally, lower mean absolute lymphocyte counts were identified in males, patients who required intubation, and patients who died.
Conclusion: Knowing the sensitivity of absolute lymphocyte count in patients with COVID-19 may help identify patients who are unlikely to have the disease. Additionally, absolute lymphocyte count can be used as a marker of disease severity in patients with COVID-19.
Keywords: Absolute lymphocyte count; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Lymphopenia.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus, lymphopenia, Absolute lymphocyte count, 【초록키워드】 Mortality, Hospitalization, severity, disease severity, hospital, intubation, Sex, emergency department, lymphopenia, Lymphocyte count, lymphocyte, sensitivity, Patient, age, Hospital admission, speed, marker, Absolute lymphocyte count, retrospective, Previous studies, Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, help, sensitivities, previous study, cut-off, laboratory-confirmed, males, identify, was used, died, subsequent, the disease, required, unlikely, was performed, can be used, presenting, ranged, calculate, patients with COVID-19, variables, 【제목키워드】 patients with COVID-19,