Standard blood laboratory parameters may have diagnostic potential, if polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) tests are not available on time. We evaluated standard blood laboratory parameters of 655 COVID-19 patients suspected to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, who underwent PCR testing in one of five hospitals in Vienna, Austria. We compared laboratory parameters, clinical characteristics, and outcomes between positive and negative PCR-tested patients and evaluated the ability of those parameters to distinguish between groups. Of the 590 patients (20–100 years, 276 females and 314 males), 208 were PCR-positive. Positive compared to negative PCR-tested patients had significantly lower levels of leukocytes, neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, monocytes, and thrombocytes; while significantly higher levels were detected with erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, C-reactive-protein, ferritin, activated-partial-thromboplastin-time, alanine-aminotransferase, aspartate-aminotransferase, lipase, creatine-kinase, and lactate-dehydrogenase. From all blood parameters, eosinophils, ferritin, leukocytes, and erythrocytes showed the highest ability to distinguish between COVID-19 positive and negative patients (area-under-curve, AUC: 72.3–79.4%). The AUC of our model was 0.915 (95% confidence intervals, 0.876–0.955). Leukopenia, eosinopenia, elevated erythrocytes, and hemoglobin were among the strongest markers regarding accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, positive and negative likelihood ratio, and post-test probabilities. Our findings suggest that especially leukopenia, eosinopenia, and elevated hemoglobin are helpful to distinguish between COVID-19 positive and negative tested patients.
【저자키워드】 Diagnostic markers, Predictive markers, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Neutrophils, Monocytes, Lymphocytes, Clinical characteristics, hospital, diagnostic, ferritin, outcome, Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, sensitivity, specificity, PCR testing, PCR, Accuracy, Vienna, eosinophils, female, Patient, Laboratory parameters, hemoglobin, parameters, patients, Blood, leukocytes, marker, basophils, COVID-19 patient, Negative predictive value, AUC, Standard, Confidence intervals, erythrocytes, PCR-positive, leukopenia, likelihood ratio, positive, significantly lower, erythrocyte, parameter, FIVE, laboratory parameter, males, highest, tested, evaluated, elevated, significantly higher, groups, infected with SARS-CoV-2, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Laboratory, Patient, Blood, Standard, Support, positive,