Abstract:

Objective To investigate the role of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio（NLR） in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2（SARS-CoV-2） infection. Methods A total of 70 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were enrolled as infection group,50 patients with fever during the same period were enrolled as fever group,and 50 healthy subjects were enrolled as healthy control group. Blood routine test and C-reactive protein（CRP） determination were performed. Receiver operating characteristic（ROC） curve was used to evaluate the performance of NLR,white blood cell（WBC） count,CRP and the percentage of lymphocyte（LYMPH%） in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results NLR and CRP were higher in infection group than those in healthy control group（P<0.001）,and the absolute value of lymphocyte（LYMPH#） and LYMPH% were lower than those in healthy control group（P<0.001）. NLR and CRP were higher in fever group than those in healthy control group（P<0.05）,and LYMPH# and LYMPH% were lower than those in healthy control group（P<0.05）. NLR in infection group was higher than that in fever group（P<0.05）,and LYMPH#,LYMPH% and CRP in infection and fever groups had no statistical significance（P>0.05）. There was no statistical significance for WBC count among the 3 groups（P>0.05）. ROC curve analysis showed that the areas under curves（AUC） of NLR,WBC count,CRP and LYMPH% in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection were 0.918,0.397,0.695 and 0.785,respectively. Conclusions NLR has good diagnostic performance in the differential diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Key words: Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Receiver operating characteristic curve