3.2 Laboratory indicators
Laboratory parameters showed that 11 patients (55%) developed lymphopenia (lymphocyte count < 0.8×109/L), of which eight patients eventually died (P = 0.07). The baseline lymphocyte count of the survival group was significantly higher than that of the death group. Among the survivors, the lymphocyte count was the lowest on days 1 to 3 after hospitalization, however, improved during hospitalization, while persistent lymphopenia was observed in the death group.  The white blood cell count in the death group showed a rising trend, and its mean value began to be higher than that in the survival group from 4 to 6 days after admission to the ICU DHQ Hospital Faisalabad.
The serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in the death group were significantly higher than those in the survival group, and the urine volume continued to decrease after 4 to 6 days of admission to the ICU. The D-dimer increased at admission to 6.91 ± 11.17 mg/mL in all patients, and 15 (75%) patients had D-dimer > 1 mg/mL. Half of the patients had blood urea nitrogen > 7.1 μmol/L. The D-dimer of the survival group was significantly lower than that of the death group and began to show a downward trend from 9 to 11 days after admission to the ICU. Most patients had increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (17 cases, 85%) and BNP (15 cases, 75%) at the time of admission, respectively 539.15±455.85 U/L and 5696.53±8832.56 pg/mL.
In all patients, C-reactive protein (CRP) was elevated to 101.46±65.60 mg/L. The CRP in the survival group showed a significant downward trend after the admission to the ICU, while the CRP in the death group increased as the disease worsened. The majority of the patients (17 cases, 85%) had high procalcitonin (ProCT), 0.31±0.42 ng/mL, of which 8 (40%) patients had 0.1 ≤ ProCT < 0.25 ng/mL and 7 (35%) patients had 0.25 ≤ ProCT < 0.5 ng/mL. Figure 1 shows the trends of laboratory indicators in the patients from the time of admission to the ICU.