3.4 Correlations between radiological and laboratory parameters
In these 289 patients, according to the heatmap of Spearmancorrelation of laboratory results on admission, together with age and
affected lobe numbers (as shown in Fig. 3), three clusters of
correlation could be found. The first one was moderate correlations
among lymphocyte, eosinophils, platelet, monocytes, leucocytes, and
neutrophils in all patients. The second one was correlations among
biochemical parameters including PCT, BUN, NLR, CRP, serum creatinine,
CK, CK-MB, D-dimer, SAA, ALT and AST, as well as age and numbers of
affected pulmonary lobes. Many of these markers showed weak and moderate
correlations, however some of them showed a strong correlation, such as
NLR, neutrophils, ALT and AST. The third one was negative correlations
among blood cell components and biochemical parameters, as well as age
and affected lobe numbers. Most of them showed weak correlations except
a strong correlation between NLR and lymphocyte counts. Increased
inflammatory parameters suggesting cytokine storm and multiorgan injury
showed a negative correlation with particularly numbers of lymphocytes
and eosinophils, but also platelets and basophils. Scatter plots of
different correlations between age, affected lobe numbers and other
laboratory parameters are shown in Fig. 4, as well as Fig. S3-S5.