TITLE:
Pattern of Potential Laboratory Markers for COVID-19 in Eastern Sudan
AUTHORS:
Nazik Sir El Khatim Bakhit Suliman, Mohammed Omer Abaker Gibreel, Mervat Sir El Khatim Bakhit Suliman
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, SARS 2, WBCs, CRP, NLR, Port Sudan
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Epidemiology,
Vol.14 No.3,
August
23,
2024
ABSTRACT: Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recent global health crisis. One of the major issues of COVID-19 is its unpredictable manifestations and serious outcomes. Many hematological parameters are thought to change dramatically during the course of the disease. These include white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This study aimed at evaluating certain laboratory results; peripheral blood lymphopenia, relative neutrophilia, high neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, and elevated C-reactive protein as potential laboratory markers of COVID-19 in Eastern Sudanese patients. Methods: We, retrospectively, aimed at the evaluation of peripheral blood leucocytes count, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio NLR and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in confirmed COVID-19 eastern Sudanese patients during the course of the disease. Results: The mean total leucocytes count, % neutrophils count, absolute neutrophils count and C-reactive protein (CRP) were significantly higher (P. value = 0.000) in COVID-19 patients than in the control group while the mean % lymphocytes count and % mixed cells count were found to be significantly lower in COVID-19 patients than in the control group (P. value 0.000). Conclusion: Peripheral blood leucocyte alterations (simultaneous presence of lymphopenia, relative neutrophilia and high neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) along with elevated CRP levels may be valuable biomarkers associated with COVID-19 in Port Sudan city, Red Sea state, Sudan. These markers might be important in prediction, inspection of disease progression and prognosis.