Implicaciones pronosticas del índice neutrófilo-linfocito en la COVID-19.

Abstract

Background COVID-19 ranges from mild illness to multi-organ failure, which appears to be conditioned by a hyperinflammatory response. A prognostic role of the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been suggested in various inflammatory diseases. Hypothesis NLR could be useful in identifying patients with a poor prognosis in hospitalized COVID-19 cases. Design A retrospective observational study was conducted at the HM Puerta del Sur University Hospital (Madrid) that included 119 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 1 to March 31, 2020. The patients were categorized according to the WHO Blueprint Expert Group classification. Results 45 (12.1%) patients experienced severe acute respiratory failure and 47 (12.6%) died. Those with the worst outcome were older (p = 0.002) and significantly higher NLR at admission (p = 0.001), with higher maximum NLR value (p <0.001) and a faster rate of increase (p = 0.003). In a multivariate linear regression, age, cardiovascular disease, C-reactive protein on admission, and NLR peak were significantly associated with death. Conclusions NLR is an easy to measure, available and reliable parameter. Its monitoring could be useful for the identification of patients at risk of severe COVID-19