Investigation of the relationship between C-reactive protein and lymphocyte counts in mortality and prognosis of patients with COVID 19

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Testing C-reactive protein with a decrease in blood lymphocytes can help in the rapid diagnosis of Covid-19 disease. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the relationship between C-reactive protein levels and lymphopenia on mortality from Covid 19 disease. Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional analytical study that was performed on 179 patients with Covid-19 referred to Imam Hossein Hospital in Shahroud. Subjects with positive PCR test, presence of C-reactive protein and lymphocytes in the experiments, outpatient referral or hospitalization in normal wards, ICU, and CCU of the hospital were included in the study. Chi-square and independent t-tests were used for statistical analysis using SPSS software version 23. The significance level was considered 0.05. Results: 179 patients were included in the study, 51.4% of whom were male. The mortality rate in the lymphopenia group was 15.9%, which was higher than the group with normal lymphocytes, and the mean age of those who died of the disease was significantly higher than those who improved (P=0.01). The results also showed that the mean age in people with high CRP is higher (P=0.01). Conclusion: According to the present study and the higher mortality rate in patients with lymphopenia, lymphopenia can be suggested as an indicator of the prognosis of patients, and also CRP can be considered a factor for the risk of mortality in patients.