Correlation between chest CT severity score and laboratory indicators in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Objective The association between computed tomography (CT) and clinical severity of COVID-19 has been demonstrated. However, there are few studies on CT and laboratory indicators in patients in COVID-19. Our aim was to explore the correlation between chest CT images and laboratory indicators of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods This was a retrospective study of patients with COVID-19 diagnosed and treated at the Affiliated Hospital of Putian University from 24 January 2020 to 6 March 2020. The correlation test between first chest CT score and blood cell analysis, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), blood biochemistry and T lymphocyte subsets (T-Ls) was investigated. Results Among the 56 patients, there were 36 (64.3%) males and 20 (35.7%) females. The mean age of the patients was 46.54 +/- 15.82 (range, 15-86) years. The CT score in the moderate group was higher than in the mild group (5.06 +/- 0.77 vs 1.87 +/- 0.88, P < .05), and higher in the severe group than in the moderate and mild groups (10.71 +/- 4.21, P < .05). In addition, the ESR was significantly higher in the severe group than mild group (32.00 (26.04, 58.24) vs 11.00 (7.84, 24.70) mm/h, P < .05). The CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD4/CD8 cells were not different (all P > .05). The CT scores of all patients correlated positively with CRP, LDH and ESR (all P < .01). Conclusion The chest CT characteristics of patients with COVID-19 correlated positively with CRP, ESR and LDH, which may use one of the indicators for the assessment of disease severity.