COVID-19 EXPERIENCE AT A NON-COVID REMOTE MULTI-SPECIALITY HEALTH CENTRE

Abstract

Background- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected all emergency branches, and likewise, its incidental diagnosis, as well as a varied neurological presentation, presented as a new war for health centers situated at resource constraint remote peripheries. Objectiveon the basis of a set admission protocols we tried to identify circulating and radiological indicators in the suspected COVID-19 patient population, to triage them, till the conrmation of their COVID-19 status. Methods and Material- We did a retrospective analysis of hemogram, other blood th th investigations and chest X ray of all patients who were admitted in Lifeline hospital Azamgarh from 5 May 2020 to 11 September 2020 and diagnosed later on as COVID-19 positive. Results- The most signicant ndings were Lymphopenia (absolute lymphocyte count [ALC] <2 9 9/ 9 ×10 /L) in 52.9% patients with 4 having mild (ALC 1-2 ×10 L), and ve with moderate lymphopenia (ALC0.5-1 ×10 /L). Another nding 9 was Monocytopenia (<0.2 ×10 /L) present in 9 (52.9%) patients and eosinopenia in one patient. Platelet count were almost normal, with only 3 9 (17.6%) patients having mild to moderate (50-150 × 10 /L) thrombocytopenia. Raised levels of C- reactive protein (CRP) was present in 5 (29.4%) patients. Chest X Ray was abnormal in 2 (11.8%) patients with bilateral ground glass opacities (GGO). Conclusions- We found almost same ndings on chest X-ray and in blood investigation like raised haemoglobin level, leukopenia, lymphopenia, eosinopenia and raised CRPlevel in this highly specialized small patient population like other studies, hence their presence have the potential to indicate SARS-CoV-2 infection, during the covid pandemic irrespect