Introduction the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) started in China in December 2019 and spread causing more than 14 million cases all over the world on July 19 th , 2020. Although, real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test is the gold standard test, it needs a long time and requires specialized laboratories and highly trained personnel. All these difficulties forced many countries with reduced health resources to limit rRT-PCR tests to individuals with severe symptoms. Thus, routine blood marker that may help physicians to suspect COVID-19 and hence, prioritize patients for molecular diagnosis is badly needed. Methods fifty-six Sudanese COVID-19 patients admitted to Jabra hospital were included in this study. For all the patients we analyzed complete blood count (CBC), CBC, plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), liver function tests (LFT) and renal function tests (RFT). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS program with a significance level of p≤0.05 and confidence limits (CLs) 95%. The difference between groups was tested using Mann-Whitney test was for quantitative variables while qualitative variables was tested using chi-square (Fisher exact) test. Results the result shows that, 35 out of the 56 patients (62.5%) were male and 21 (37.5%) were females with a median age of 60-year-old for both sexes. Lymphocytes % showed decrease to 9.2 (P-value=0.000) and significant increase in neutrophils to 83.05 (P-value=0.005), ESR to 65.54 (P-value=0.000) and CRP to 91.07 (P-value=0.000). The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC)/area under the curve (AUC) ensured the expellant result of lymphocytes % as a predictor with 92% area under the curve, neutrophils were 90% and ESR 95.8%. The percent of detecting COVID-19 positive RT-PCR (98%) for suspected individuals using ROC showed best cutoff of ≤21.8 for lymphocytes %, ≥67.7 for neutrophils, ≥37.5 for ESR, ≥6.2 for CRP and ≥7.15 for WBCs. Conclusion the results also showed that, lymphocyte percentages, neutrophils, CRP and ESR may be used as markers for COVID-19 helping prioritizing individuals for rRT-PCR test.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus, blood markers, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, Neutrophils, Coronavirus disease 2019, Lymphocytes, hospital, neutrophil, C-reactive protein, CRP, health resources, RT-PCR, renal function, Laboratory, CBC, Spread, China, lymphocyte, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, polymerase chain reaction, rRT-PCR, Health, ROC, Molecular diagnosis, outbreak, complete blood count, male, female, Patient, liver function tests, renal function tests, gold, plasma, ESR, reverse transcription, PCR test, group, characteristic, resource, Blood, marker, positive RT-PCR, blood count, Analysis, Plasma levels, statistical analysis, COVID-19 patient, AUC, erythrocyte sedimentation, best, receiver operating characteristic, Chain Reaction, Liver function test, Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, sedimentation rate, significance level, significant increase, gold standard, median age, individual, severe symptoms, percentages, help, Cutoff, Mann-Whitney test, WBCs, receiver, both sexes, SPSS, all the patients, physician, confidence limits, qualitative variables, quantitative variables, rRT-PCR test, rRT-PCR tests, Fisher, variable, helping, country, limit, decrease, polymerase chain, Result, analyzed, the patient, reduced, was done, confidence limit, quantitative variable, was tested, 【제목키워드】 Neutrophils, CRP, lymphocyte, Health, ESR, resource, marker, COVID-19 patient, percentages, help, country,