How to diagnose COVID-19 in family practice? Usability of complete blood count as a COVID-19 diagnostic tool: a cross-sectional study in Turkey

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BAYRAKTAR M., TEKİN E., KOÇAK M. N.

BMJ open, cilt.13, sa.4, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 13 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069493
  • Dergi Adı: BMJ open
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: COVID-19, Molecular diagnostics, PRIMARY CARE
  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 is currently diagnosed in hospital settings. An easy and practical diagnosis of COVID-19 is needed in primary care. For this purpose, the usability of complete blood count in the diagnosis of COVID-19 was investigated. DESIGN: Retrospective, cross-sectional study. SETTING: Single-centre study in a tertiary university hospital in Erzurum, Turkey. PARTICIPANTS: Between March 2020 and February 2021, patients aged 18-70 years who applied to the hospital and underwent both complete blood count and reverse-transcription-PCR tests for COVID-19 were included and compared. Conditions affecting the test parameters (oncological-haematological conditions, chronic diseases, drug usage) were excluded. OUTCOME MEASURE: The complete blood count and COVID-19 results of eligible patients identified using diagnostic codes [U07.3 (COVID-19) or Z03.8 (observation for other suspected diseases and conditions)] were investigated. RESULTS: Of the 978 patients included, 39.4% (n=385) were positive for COVID-19 and 60.6% (n=593) were negative. The mean age was 41.5±14.5 years, and 53.9% (n=527) were male. COVID-19-positive patients were found to have significantly lower leucocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, basophil, platelet and immature granulocyte (IG) values (p<0.001). Neutrophil/lymphocyte, neutrophil/monocyte and IG/lymphocyte ratios were also found to be significantly decreased (p<0.001). With logistic regression analysis, low lymphocyte count (OR 0.695; 95% CI 0.597 to 0.809) and low red cell distribution width-coefficient of variation (RDW-CV) (OR 0.887; 95% CI 0.818 to 0.962) were significantly associated with COVID-19 positivity. In receiver operating characteristic analysis, the cut-off values of lymphocyte and RDW-CV were 0.745 and 12.35, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although our study was designed retrospectively and reflects regional data, it is important to determine that low lymphocyte count and RDW-CV can be used in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in primary care.