Can the immature granulocyte count have a role in the diagnosis of coronavirus 2019 disease?

Abstract

Background: The pathophysiology of COVID-19 disease is not clearly understood; inflammation has been shown to play a major role. The immature granulocytes count (IGC) can be an indicator of inflammation. To the best of our knowledge, there is no data on the usability of IGC for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Objectives: We aim to investigate the usability of the inflammatory marker IGC in the diagnosis of COVID-19. Patients and Methods: COVID-19 patients admitted to a tertiary university hospital were included in this study, and hemogram parameters, white blood cells, hemoglobin, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and IGC were investigated. According to the real-time reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction, patients were categorized into two groups as COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative. Results: The mean value of IGC was 0.02 (0.02) for the COVID-19-positive group and 0.11 (0.04) for the COVID-19-negative group. Patients with COVID-19 positive were found to have an IGC value that is significantly lower than the other group (P < 0.001). For IGC, it was calculated at a cut-off value of 0.03 (area under the curve: 0.718; sensitivity: 66.7%; specificity: 72.3%; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results of our study have shown that on-admission IGC level is a novel, cost-effective, and readily available biomarker with a promising predictive marker for COVID-19 patients.