Laboratory abnormalities in patients with COVID-19 in Mazandaran province, Iran

Abstract EN

Background: Coronavirus is a single-stranded RNA virus, causing an epidemic of pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) worldwide in late 2019.

Objectives: In addition to the clinical symptoms, laboratory diagnosis can greatly help diagnose the diseases;therefore, this study aimed to analyze laboratory parameters in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the laboratory data of 2563 patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospitals affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were extracted from hospital information systems (HIS).

The data were recorded on Excel and analyzed through t-test, chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests in SPSS 19 at the significance level of P < 0.05.

Results: Out of 2563 patients with a mean age of 55.1 +/- 16.7 years, 1409 (55%) were male, and 1154 (45%) were female with a mean age of 55.7 +/- 16.8, and 54.3 +/- 16.6 years, respectively.

As the most frequent clinical findings, ESR, CRP, and LDH were increased by 83.5%, 71%, and 69.3% of the patients, respectively.

Other research findings included lymphopenia, disturbed INR, abnormal SGOT, abnormal alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which were significantly higher in men than in women and was different between age groups.

Conclusions: Conducting simple, convenient, and inexpensive laboratory tests can be helpful in the diagnosis of COVID-19.