ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the clinical significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in classification of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 72 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the critical ward of Cancer Center of Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan from February to March in 2020. The patients were divided into two groups: moderate type (non-severe group) and severe/critical type (severe group). The results of white blood cell count (WBC), neutrophil count (NEU), lymphocyte count (LYM), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and D-dimer were collected at the 2nd day after admission from the two groups, and the NLR was calculated. The diagnostic value of WBC, NEU, LYM, IL-6, D-dimer and NLR on COVID-19 classification was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results:A total of 72 COVID-19 patients were enrolled, among whom 52 were moderate, 17 were severe, and 3 were critical. The most common clinical manifestations of patients were fever (70.8%), cough (36.1%), chest tightness and breathlessness (37.5%), diarrhea (15.3%), fatigue (15.3%), vomiting and nausea (11.1%), occasionally accompanied by acute dyspnea (2.8%), and only one patient had no clinical symptom (1.4%). The levels of WBC, NEU, IL-6, D-dimer and NLR in the severe group were significantly higher than those in the non-severe group [WBC (×10 9/L): 7.81±3.65 vs. 5.34±1.69, NEU (×10 9/L): 5.83±3.13 vs. 3.24±1.53, IL-6 (ng/L): 133.63 (71.09, 249.61) vs. 28.05 (6.41, 101.24), D-dimer (mg/L): 0.86 (0.31, 2.56) vs. 0.33 (0.20, 0.71), NLR: 6.14±4.75 vs. 2.66±1.93, all P < 0.05], and the level of LYM was significantly lower than that in the non-severe group (×10 9/L: 1.09±0.56 vs. 1.49±0.74, P < 0.05). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the areas under ROC curve (AUC) of WBC, NEU, LYM, IL-6, D-dimer and NLR for COVID-19 classification were 0.790 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) was 0.684-0.897), 0.869 (95% CI was 0.789-0.949), 0.719 (95% CI was 0.592-0.847), 0.790 (95% CI was 0.682-0.898), 0.676 (95% CI was 0.526-0.827), and 0.888 (95% CI was 0.814-0.963) respectively. The AUC of NLR was the highest, which was of high diagnostic value; when the optimum cut-off value of NLR was 3.00, the sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 73.1%. Conclusion:NLR can be used as a biomarker to predict classification of COVID-19 patients independently, which can provide a theoretical basis for the classification management of COVID-19 patients.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of serum calcium level on the prognosis of patients with sepsis. Methods Clinical data of 119 patients with sepsis admitted to intensive care medicine (ICU) of the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China from January 2017 to October 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Gender, age, and C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), serum calcium levels, acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ(APACHEⅡ), sequential organ failure score (SOFA) within 24 hours of diagnosis, and 28-day mortality were collected. The patients were divided into the normal serum calcium group (serum calcium 2.00-2.67 mmol/L) and the hypocalcemia group (serum calcium < 2.00 mmol/L) according to their serum calcium level. The patients were divided into survival group and death group according to 28-day prognosis. Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between serum calcium level and clinical indicators. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the predictive value of serum calcium level on prognosis. Results A total of 119 patients with sepsis were included, including 50 patients with normal serum calcium, with serum calcium level of (2.14±0.10) mmol/L; and 69 patients of hypocalcemia, and the incidence of hypocalcemia was 57.98%, with serum calcium level of (1.81±0.14) mmol/L. In the hypocalcemia group, except that the APACHEⅡ score was significantly higher than that of the normal serum calcium group (25.59±5.52 vs. 22.28±4.89, P < 0.01), there was no significant difference in gender, age, CRP, PCT and SOFA score between the two groups. The 28-day mortality rate of the hypocalcemia group was significantly higher than that of the normal serum calcium group [78.26% (54/69) vs. 48.00% (24/50), χ2 = 10.45, P < 0.01]. The level of serum calcium in the death group was significantly lower than that in the survival group (mmol/L: 1.90±0.20 vs. 2.04±0.19), while the APACHEⅡ score was significantly higher than the survival group (25.78±5.25 vs. 21.20±4.68), with statistically significant differences (both P < 0.01). There was a negative correlation between serum calcium level and PCT, APACHEⅡ scores in patients with sepsis (r1 = -2.10, P1 = 0.04;r2 = -3.91, P2 < 0.01), but no correlation with CRP and SOFA score (r1 = 0.75, P1 = 0.46; r2 = -1.21, P2 = 0.23). The ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for predicting the prognosis of sepsis patients with serum calcium level was 0.70 [95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 0.602-0.798], and the best cut-off value was 1.92 mmol/L, with the sensitivity was 52.56%, and the specificity was 82.93%. Conclusions The prognosis of sepsis patients with hypocalcemia is poor. Serum calcium level can be used as a predictor of prognosis in patients with sepsis.