Clinical laboratory characteristics in patients with suspected COVID‐19: One single‐institution experience

OBJECTIVES: Since December 2019, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a worldwide pandemic. The aim of the study is to investigate the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics in suspected COVID-19 patients in our institution. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we investigated suspected COVID-19 patients admitted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a request for an interleukin-6 send-out test, from March 28 to June 27, 2020. Patients' demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics were collected by chart review. RESULTS: Fifty patients suspected with COVID-19 were included in our study, of whom 24 patients were positive with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection and 26 were negative. During the observation period, 30 patients were discharged, 17 died during hospitalization, and three remained in hospital. Compared to non-COVID-19 patients, COVID-19 patients had older age, more comorbidities, and elevated levels of inflammation markers such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), serum ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). However, there was no significant difference in laboratory data between survivors and nonsurvivors in COVID-19 patients in our study. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that potential risk factors of older age, multiple comorbidities, and high levels of ESR, CRP, serum ferritin, and LDH could help the clinician to identify potential COVID-19 patients. However, this data needs to be further validated in a larger population.