A study on correlation of hematological parameters with computed tomography severity score in COVID-19 patients in a Tertiary Care Center

Background: COVID-19 is a rapidly spreading infectious pandemic. Increase in the level of systemic inflammatory markers is known to play fugitive role in the prognosis of the patients. This study retrospectively correlates the various hematological parameters with computed tomography severity score in COVID-19 patients. Method: The demographic, hematological, and radiological parameters of 150 patients were collected and analyzed. The performance of complete blood count (CBC) indexes for monitoring and predicting the severity of COVID-19 in patients was evaluated by analyzing and comparing CBC results with radiological severity score. Results: Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) correlated positively while lymphocyte correlated negatively with chest computed tomography severity score. Neutrophil, lymphocyte, eosinophil, monocyte, NLR, and PLR showed a significant difference between radiologically mild and severe COVID-19 cases (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The prognostic value of NLR in predicting the severity of illness is well established in our study. Increased NLR should prompt the clinicians to predict increased lung involvement by COVID-19 and should cater the treatment accordingly.