Neutrophil- and platelet-lymphocyte ratios as valuable prognostic biomarkers in ICU COVID-19 patients

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious pandemic infectious disease that spread all over the world with a wide variety of complications. The need for easily available markers that can assess the severity and prognosis of the disease nowadays is a great demand. Aim: Study the dynamic changes in NLR and PLR during treatment of confirmed COVID-19 patient in the ICU regarding prognosis and mortality. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study included 67 patients, with a confirmed COVID-19 by Real time PCR and meet the criteria of hospitalization. Patients were followed up daily for denoting their outcome. NLR and PLR were calculated and compared with other proven biomarkers for COVID-19 to predict prognosis, mortality, and assess their sensitivity and specificity. Result: A total of 67 ICU patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in the current study, 40 were improved and 27 died. Died patients had older age compared with improved patients. Neutrophils were significantly higher among dead patients compared to improved ones (p-value= 0.035). It was found that the NLR & PLR were significantly higher in dead compared to improved patients as follow (p= 0.007) and (p= 0.041), that, may help in the early detection of Covid-19 patients who need more aggressive clinical management. The data showed that there was a high significance of NLR and PLR (p<0.001) in the mortality prediction state. Conclusion: Both NLR and PLR are good predictors biomarkers for severity and mortality in ICU COVID-19 patients.