Combined use of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and CRP to predict 7-day disease severity in 84 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia: a retrospective cohort study

Yue-Ping Liu; Gao-Ming Li; Jun He; Ying Liu; Min Li; Rui Zhang; Ya-Lan Li; Ya-Zhou Wu; Bo Diao

doi:10.21037/atm-20-2372

Combined use of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and CRP to predict 7-day disease severity in 84 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia: a retrospective cohort study

Ann Transl Med. 2020 May;8(10):635. doi: 10.21037/atm-20-2372.

Authors

Yue-Ping Liu^{1

2}, Gao-Ming Li³, Jun He¹, Ying Liu⁴, Min Li¹, Rui Zhang³, Ya-Lan Li¹, Ya-Zhou Wu³, Bo Diao¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Laboratory Center, General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan 430015, China.
² Department of Medical Laboratory Medicine, 991st Hospital of Joint Logistic Support Troop, Xiangyang 441003, China.
³ Department of Health Statistics, College of Preventive Medicine, Army Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
⁴ Department of Medical Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan 430015, China.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly worldwide from Wuhan. An easy-to-use index capable of the early identification of inpatients who are at risk of becoming critically ill is urgently needed in clinical practice. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore an easy-to-use nomogram and a model to triage patients into risk categories to determine the likelihood of developing a critical illness.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. We extracted data from 84 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from one designated hospital. The primary endpoint was the development of severe/critical illness within 7 days after admission. Predictive factors of this endpoint were selected by LASSO Cox regression model. A nomogram was developed based on selected variables. The predictive performance of the derived nomogram was evaluated by calibration curves and decision curves. Additionally, the predictive performances of individual and combined variables under study were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curves. The developed model was also tested in a separate validation set with 71 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients.

Results: None of the 84 inpatients were lost to follow-up in this retrospective study. The primary endpoint occurred in 23 inpatients (27.4%). The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were selected as the final prognostic factors. A nomogram was developed based on the NLR and CRP. The calibration curve and decision curve indicated that the constructed nomogram model was clinically useful. The AUCs for the NLR, CRP and Combined Index in both training set and validation sets were 0.685 (95% CI: 0.574-0.783), 0.764 (95% CI: 0.659-0.850), 0.804 (95% CI: 0.702-0.883), and 0.881 (95% CI: 0.782-0.946), respectively.

Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that the nomogram and Combined Index calculated from the NLR and CRP are potential and reliable predictors of COVID-19 prognosis and can triage patients at the time of admission.

Keywords: C-reactive protein (CRP); Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR); prognostic; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).