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.