Biomedicine

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 has affected over 200 countries and territories. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of eosinopenia in differentiating COVID-19 suspect from other flu-like illnesses in an outpatient setting.
Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective case control study in which data of 1252 suspected COVID 19 patients who visited the fever clinic were enrolled. Among this, 701 patients were found to have COVID-19 pneumonia and 551 had other flu-like illnesses. CBC (complete blood count) and CRP (C- reactive protein) were taken in all patients along with chest x-ray as routine protocol.
Results: Among the 701 positive patients, eosinopenia was seen in 527 patients and had a sensitivity of 75.2 % and specificity of 68.6 %. When combined with other lab parameters such as the increased CRP and lymphopenia, the specificity rises up to 78.6 %.
Conclusion: Our study shows that eosinopenia as an independent variable, is a reliable marker to differentiate COVID-19 suspect patients from other flu-like illnesses on outpatient basis, however when combined with other parameters like lymphopenia and CRP the specificity increases further.