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Croatian Medical Journal, Vol. 62 No. 6, 2021.

Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2021.62.623

Can laboratory evaluation differentiate between coronavirus disease-2019, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus infections? A retrospective cohort study

Ariel Ben Shimol ; Internal Medicine B, Assuta Medical Center, Ashdod, Israe
Shani Dahan ; Internal Medicine B, Assuta Medical Center, Ashdod, Israe
Nachshol Alon ; Internal Medicine B, Assuta Medical Center, Ashdod, Israe
Shelly Soffer ; Internal Medicine B, Assuta Medical Center, Ashdod, Israe
Keren Hod ; Department of Academy and Research, Assuta Medical Centers, Tel Aviv, Israe
Tal Brosh-Nissimov ; Infectious Diseases Unit, Assuta Ashdod Hospital, Ashdod, Israel
Yehuda Shoenfeld ; Sheba Medical Center, The Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Ramat Gan, Israel
Amir Dagan ; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israe

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Abstract

Aim To identify clinical and laboratory parameters that can
assist in the differential diagnosis of coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19), influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus
(RSV) infections.
Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we obtained
basic demographics and laboratory data from all 685 hospitalized patients confirmed with severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), influenza virus, or
RSV from 2018 to 2020. A multiple logistic regression was
employed to investigate the relationship between COVID19 and laboratory parameters.
Results SARS-CoV-2 patients were significantly younger
than RSV (P=0.001) and influenza virus (P=0.022) patients.
SARS-CoV-2 patients also displayed a significant male predominance over influenza virus patients (P=0.047). They
also had significantly lower white blood cell count (median
6.3×106
cells/μ) compared with influenza virus (P<0.001)
and RSV (P=0.001) patients. Differences were also observed in other laboratory values but were insignificant in
a multivariate analysis.
Conclusions Male sex, younger age, and low white blood
cell count can assist in the diagnosis of COVID-19 over other viral infections. However, the differences between the
groups were not substantial enough and would probably
not suffice to distinguish between the viral illnesses in the
emergency department

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

278873

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/278873

Publication date:

23.12.2021.

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