Haematological profile of hospitalised COVID-19 patients from a centre
in Singapore
Abstract
Background: Haematological markers such as absolute lymphopenia has been
associated with severe COVID-19 infection. However, the described
cohorts were generally unwell with a large proportion of patients
requiring intensive care stay. It is uncertain if these markers apply to
a population with less severe illness. We sought to describe the
haematological profile of patients with mild disease with COVID-19 that
were admitted to a single centre in Singapore. Methods: We examined 554
consecutive PCR positive SARS-COV-2 patients who were admitted to a
single tertiary healthcare institution from Feb 2020 to April 2020 2020.
We examined patients based on their haematological profile based on full
blood count obtained within 24h of presentation. Results: Patients with
pneumonia had higher neutrophil percentages (66.5±11.6 vs 55.2±12.6%,
p<0.001), lower absolute lymphocyte count (1.5±1.1 vs 1.9±2.1
x109/L, p<0.011) and absolute eosinophil count (0.2±0.9 vs
0.7±1.8 x109/L, p=0.002). Platelet counts (210±56 vs 230±61, p=0.020)
were slightly lower in the group with pneumonia. We did not demonstrate
significant differences in the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio,
lymphocyte-monocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio in patients with
or without pneumonia. Sixty-eight patients (12.3%) had peripheral
eosinophilia. This was more common in migrant workers living in
dormitories. Conclusion: Neutrophilia and lymphopenia were found to be
markers associated with severe COVID-19 illness. We did not find that
combined haematological parameters: NLR, MLR and PLR, had any
association with disease severity in our cohort of patients with
mild-moderate disease. Migrant workers living in dormitories had
eosinophilia which may reflect concurrent chronic parasitic infection.