key: cord-0895763-5t2i092o
authors: Qian, Guo-Qing; Zhang, Xie; Ma, Ada Hoi Yan; Yang, Nai-Bin
title: Response letter to Eosinophil count in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
date: 2020-04-21
journal: QJM
DOI: 10.1093/qjmed/hcaa138
sha: fee88f52fe6896126b2e36fd5fb185afc1c6add9
doc_id: 895763
cord_uid: 5t2i092o

nan

Dear Sir, Response letter to Eosinophil count in severe coronavirus disease 2019 .

This letter is in response to the letter to the editor by Dr Lippi and Dr Henry, which raised the concern whether eosinopenia is associated with the severity of COVID-19 in patients. They pooled 294 patients from 3 studies, including 75 of whom (25.5%) with severe COVID-19, and demonstrated that the eosinophil count was not observed to be significantly different between mild or severe COVID-19 cases 1 .

In our previous study we reported that 47 (51.65%) patients had eosinopenia (<0.02 10 9 /L) × out of 91 COVID-19 patients, and there is no difference between mild and severe pneumonia groups 2 . We found that eosinophil counts were positively correlated to lymphocyte count (r = Eosinopenia has been descripted as a biomarker in bacterial infection since 1893, and has been used as a biomarker to discriminate between infectious and non-infectious diseases, as well as prognostic, which is not only performed in intensive care units, but also investigated in internal medicine departments 5, 6 . Moreover, eosinopenia is significantly associated with the severity of paediatrics diseases and could differentiate bacterial from aseptic meningitis 7 .

Eosinopenia could be due to the sequestration of eosinophils by chemokines into the inflammation sites or the generation of eosinophils being suppressed in the bone marrow.

However, regarding the diagnostic value of eosinopenia in COVID-19 is still unclear. It is easily to detect the level of eosinophil count and very cost-effectiveness. We suggest that the presence of eosinopenia will help the physician to realize the presence of infection. We need a large number of cases to reveal the sensitivity and specificity of eosinophil count in COVID-19.

https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qjm

Eosinophil count in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Epidemiologic and Clinical Characteristics of 91 Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in Zhejiang, China: A retrospective, multi-centre case series

Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China

Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China

Eosinophil count (EC) as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for infection in the internal medicine department setting

Eosinopenia of acute infection: Production of eosinopenia by chemotactic factors of acute inflammation

Eosinopenia as a marker of diagnosis and prognostic to distinguish bacterial from aseptic meningitis in pediatrics