Distinguishing between severe and nonsevere COVID-19 to ensure adequate healthcare quality and efficiency is a challenge for the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of CBC parameters together with analysis of FLC serum concentration in risk stratification of COVID-19.
Materials and methods: CBC was analyzed in 735 COVID ICU, COVID non-ICU, and non-COVID ICU cases. FLC concentration was analyzed in 133 of them.
Results: COVID ICU had neutrophils and lymphocytes with the greatest size, granularity, and nucleic acid content. Significant differences in concentrations of κ and λ FLCs were shown between COVID ICU and COVID non-ICU. However, no difference was found in the κ/λ ratio between these groups, and the ratio stayed within the reference value, which indicates the presence of polyclonal FLCs. FLC κ measurement has significant power to distinguish between severe COVID-19 and nonsevere COVID-19 (AUC = 0.7669), with a sensitivity of 86.67% and specificity of 93.33%. The κ coefficients' odds ratio of 3.0401 was estimated.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that the results obtained from the measure of free light immunoglobulin concentration in serum are useful in distinguishing between severe and nonsevere COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; FLC; antibody synthesis lymphocytes.