ABSTRACT
Objectives: To reveal the importance of the laboratory routine determination of some hematological, coagulation and biochemical parameters in the prognosis of COVID-19. Materials and methods: The basic characteristic information such as age, gender, clinical symptoms and the clinical laboratory data of 300 COVID-19 patients that were admitted to the Respiratory Care Unit, Al-lmam Al-Hussein Medical City, Kerbala, Iraq were obtained from the patients' records. The patients were 146 males and 154 females, their ages were between 20 and 50 years (34.3±8.6). Results: According to their clinical status, patients were divided into moderate and severe groups. Among the 300 patients, 177 were considered as moderate cases and 123 were severe cases. Ferritin, D-Dimer, and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were significantly higher in severe cases (P<0.05), as were lymphocytes and white blood cells (WBC) levels (P=0.0001). Hematocrit and hemoglobin were at almost the same levels in both groups (P>0.05). Platelet counts showed normal values in moderate and severe cases. In severe cases, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was significantly increased (P=0.0001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve exhibited that WBC, D-Dimer and LDH have fair values regarding the discriminative ability between the moderate and severe groups (AUC 0.788, 0.718 and 0.761, respectively, P-value of 0.0001). Conclusion: The laboratory routine determination is of a key importance in the prognosis and handling of the cases of COVID-19, especially those that could develop acute respiratory failure, so further deterioration can be avoided.