Introduction:

The neutrophil-lymphocyte index is the relationship between the absolute number of neutrophils and lymphocytes. Its increase predicts severe COVID-19 disease, even when inflammation is subclinical.

Objective:

To determine the usefulness of the neutrophil lymphocyte index as a predictor of severity of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.

Materials and methods:

A case-control study was carried out, with a non-probabilistic sampling of consecutive cases from January to July 2021 in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection from the Hospital Nacional, Paraguay. Patients with severe SARS-COV-2 pneumonia and controls were those with mild and moderate forms of pneumonia.

Results:

Three hundred ten patients (155 cases and 155 controls) were included. The age group ranged from 19 to 90 years (mean 53 ± 15 years). The neutrophil-lymphocyte index difference was 11.71 in cases vs 7.09 in controls (p 0.0001), with patients with an neutrophil-lymphocyte index greater than 3 being 5.08 times more likely to develop severe pneumonia.

Conclusion:

neutrophil-lymphocyte index predicts the development of severe pneumonia to SARS-CoV-2.

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