Hematological features and risk factors of hospitalized COVID-19 patients: A retrospective analysis

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became pandemic in 2020 and recently, mutated coronaviruses have emerged in many countries. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical characteristics and risk factors for critical illness in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Zhengzhou for clinical prevention and management. Materials and methods: A total of 70 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were enrolled between 21 January and 29 February 2020, in Zhengzhou, China. Clinical characteristics, hematological findings, neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and inflammatory index on admission were obtained from medical records, COVID-19 patients with different outcomes were compared. Results: The median age was 55 years. Forty-three (61.0%) patients were classified as having severe or critical cases. Eighteen (25.7%) patients died in hospital and the remaining 52 were discharged. Patients who died tend to be old with expectoration and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Compared to survivor, non-survivor had significantly higher numbers of leucocytes and neutrophils, NLR, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), prothrombin time, D-dimer, C-reactive protein, and decreased platelets, lymphocytes, uric acid, and albumin (ALB). Logistic regression analysis identified leucocytes, platelets, PLR, NLR, AST, and ALB as independent predictive factors for poor outcomes. The area under curve of the combination of leucocytes, PLR, NLR, and AST was 0.87, with a sensitivity of 0.83 and specificity of 0.81. Conclusion: Our results identified risk factors among COVID-19 patients for in-hospital mortality. Leucocytes, PLR, NLR, and AST could have important reference value for predicting prognosis, especially in low-resource countries.