ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Covid-19 is a pandemic viral infection with high pathogenicity and contagiousness. Our aim is to evaluate the preliminary hematological findings analyzed during admission in order to determine the diagnostic value of hematological parameters in Covid-19 patients and to reveal their relationship with the severity of the disease. METHODS: Our study includes a total of 169 patients, whose diagnosis was confirmed and 93 of whom were treated in the ward, 76 of whom were treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 67 control patients. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte (MLR) ratio, platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume/platelet count ratio (MPV/PLT) data on admission were analyzed retrospectively and compared. RESULTS: ICU patients had significantly higher values of NLR, MLR, PLR, and MPV/PLT (p < 0.001 for each) but had lower values of lymphocyte count and hemoglobin (p < 0.001 for each) compared to that of ward patients. According to the results of ROC analysis, the diagnostic values of NLR, MLR, PLR, and MPV/PLT parameters were statistically significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of our study, abnormal routine peripheral blood examination results were detected in Covid-19 patients. NLR, MLR, and PLR can be considered as independent, reliable biomarkers for assessing disease severity, hospitalization, and clinical classification in Covid-19. Therefore, it was concluded that fast, cost-effective, easily accessible admission hemogram parameters are reasonably important to predict the prognosis of Covid-19 patients.