ABSTRACT
Background: A rapid outbreak of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, made it a global pandemic. This study focused on the possible association between lymphopenia and Computed tomography (CT) scan features and COVID-19 patient mortality. Method: The clinical data of 596 COVID-19 patients were collected from February 2020 to September 2020. The patients’ serological survey and CT scan features were retrospectively explored. Results: The median age of the patients was 56.7±16.4 years old. Lung involvement was more than 50% in 214 COVID-19 patients (35.9%). The average blood lymphocyte percentage was 20.35 ±10.16. The levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) may not indicate the severity and prognosis of COVID-19. Patients with severe lung involvement and lymphopenia were found to be significantly associated with increased odds of death (odds ratio [OR], 9.24; 95% confidence interval [95 CI%], 4.32- 19.78). These results indicated that lymphopenia <20% along with pulmonary involvement >50% impose a multiplicative effect on the risk of mortality. The in-hospital mortality rate of this group was significantly higher than other COVID-19 hospitalized cases. Furthermore, they meaningfully experienced a prolonged stay in the hospital (P= 0.00). Conclusion: The Lymphocyte count less than 20% and chest CT scan findings with more than 50% involvement might be related to the patient’s mortality. It could act as laboratory and clinical indicators of disease severity and mortality.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , LymphopeniaABSTRACT
Purpose: Due to the emergence of the new Coronavirus-2019 and the lack of sufficient information about infected patients, this study was conducted to investigate the Chest High Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) findings of patients infected with the new Coronavirus 2019.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on COVID-19 patients referred to Medical Imaging Centers of Sari, Mazandaran, Iran, on March 2020 for Computed Tomography Scan (CT-Scan). Symptomatic patients were referred to the Medical Imaging Center for diagnosis confirmation through CT-scan. In addition to age and sex, HRCT findings were collected from the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) for further evaluations.Results: Out of 552 patients with mean age of 14.8 ± 51.2 years, the male/female ratio was 1.38 to 1. The most common expressive findings in patients were ground-glass opacity (GGO) (87.3%), peripheral distribution (82.4%) and posterior distribution (81.5%). The most conflicting findings in patients were pleural effusion (7.6%), peribronchovascular distribution (7.6%), and lymphadenopathy (5.1%). The peripheral distribution (p = 0.034), round opacities (p = 0.02), single lobe (p = 0.003) and pleural effusion (p = 0.037) were significantly in people under and over 50 years of age.Conclusion: In summary, the present study indicated that in addition to GGO, peripheral distribution findings could be a vital diagnostic choice in COVID-19 patients.