Role of eosinophils in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of COVID-19

J Med Virol. 2021 Feb;93(2):1105-1110. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26506. Epub 2020 Sep 28.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, which has severely affected global public health security. However, the diagnosis and treatment of the disease need further exploration. Therefore, this retrospective analysis was conducted on multiple indicators of peripheral blood in patients with COVID-19 to determine the role of leukocytes, lymphocytes, and eosinophils in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of COVID-19. Baseline information and clinical records of 40 patients were collected, including demographic data, disease status, medication, and laboratory routine. The correlation between the inspection indicators and disease classification, as well as prognostic factors, was analyzed. Decreased eosinophils were detected in 33 out of 40 patients with COVID-19 on admission, while lymphocytes and eosinophils were inversely related to the severity of the disease, according to the Spearman's correlation coefficient. Thus, it could be deduced that eosinophils have better sensitivity for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and play a major role similar to lymphocytes in assessing the prognosis of patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; eosinophils; lymphocyte.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • COVID-19 / blood
  • COVID-19 / diagnosis*
  • COVID-19 / immunology*
  • Eosinophils / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Length of Stay / statistics & numerical data
  • Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Middle Aged
  • Neutrophils / immunology
  • Prognosis
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Young Adult