Changes of lymphocyte and subsets counts and the correlation to the prognosis in COVID-19 patients

Objective: To explore the changes of lymphocyte and subsets counts and their correlations with the prognosis in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: A total of 151 COVID-19 patients who were diagnosed and hospitalized in our hospital, and were divided into survival group (n=128, including the discharged and the hospitalized patients) and death group (n=23) according to the outcomes five weeks after admission. The clinical features and the counts of peripheral lymphocyte and subsets were compared between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression were used to evaluate the prognostic roles of peripheral lymphocyte and subsets counts, and the predictive values of them were further determined by ROC curve. Results: Compared with thsoe in survival group, lymphocyte and subsets (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, and CD19+ cell) counts were significantly lower in death group (all P<0.05). Counts of the lymphocyte were an independent predictor of prognosis. The AUC of lymphocyte and CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD19+ cell counts on the basis of the ROC curve were 0.750, 0.711, 0.735, 0.674, and 0.666, respectively (P<0.05). Conclusion: Lymphocyte count is an independent predictor of the prognosis in COVID-19 patients. Increased count of lymphocyte predicts better outcomes. The predictive values for COVID-19 prognosis by lymphocytes, CD3+, and CD4+ cells counts were existed. © 2021, Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Wuhan University. All right reserved.