Evaluation of Absolute Neutrophil Count in COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background and objectives: coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) is a communicable disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2). the clinical manifestations of covid-19 vary from asymptomatic to acute respiratory distress syndrome. in severely-ill patients, neutrophil count is significantly increased. this study aimed to evaluate absolute neutrophil count (anc) in patients with covid-19 and healthy individuals. methods: this retrospective, cross-sectional study was carried out on patients admitted to the outpatient department of obgy rural hospital (maharashtra, india) from april 2021 to june 2021. a peripheral venous blood sample (3 ml) was taken from 143 patients with covid-19 and 143 healthy controls. the blood samples were analyzed using a fully automated blood cell counter for the estimation of complete blood count. a peripheral blood smear was prepared and stained with leishman stain for evaluation of morphological changes. results: the anc of covid-19 patients was significantly higher than that of healthy control subjects (p=0.00001). toxic granules (48.9%) were the most common morphological neutrophil abnormality, followed by hypolobation, hypogranulation, pseudo-pelger-huet anomaly (20.9%), and shift to left with the presence of immature myeloid series cells. conclusion: high anc along with morphological changes in neutrophils could be used as a simple and inexpensive surrogate marker of covid-19 and its severity.