LAUSR

INTRODUCTION: The host immune responses try to confront Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with all the potential cells and cytokines Eventually, natural killer cells and T cells become exhausted, decreasing their counts, leading to lymphopenia This study aims to assess the clinical utility of the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) at admission in predicting outcome in patients with COVID-19 METHODS: Ours was a single-center, retrospective observational study, which included 463 nasopharyngeal swabs SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive patients Absolute lymphocyte count was retrieved from the admission complete blood count & was divided into 3 sub-groups (1000 cells/μL) Demographics, comorbid conditions, and outcomes such as the need for mechanical ventilation, length of stay, and inpatient mortality were assessed Statistics were performed using STATA Significance was assigned at p1000) Profound lymphopenia (1000;p-value: 0 01) Inpatient mortality was significantly higher in cohort with ALC 1000;p-value 0 05) On multivariate regression, ALC was not a independent predictor of mortality (ALC<500, OR: 1 56±0 75, p-value: 0 44) CONCLUSIONS: Lymphopenia at admission in COVID19 patients is associated with an increased need for non-invasive & invasive ventilation & inpatient mortality Currently, clinical trials assessing GM-CSF as a possible therapeutic option is underway