2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

Betacoronavirus

Virology

T cell

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Outbreak

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Immunology

Physics

Lymphocyte

Immune system

Astronomy

Immune status

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Internal medicine

Medicine

Pneumonia

Gastroenterology

CD19

Disease

Severity of illness

Course (navigation)

Journal of Clinical Virology

To explore the clinical course and its dynamic features of immune status in COVID-19 patients and find predictors correlated with severity and prognosis of COVID-19. The electronic medical records of 204 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia confirmed by nucleic acid testing were retrospectively collected and analyzed. All patients were divided into severe (69) and non-severe group (135). Lymphocyte subsets count, including CD3+ T cell, CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell, B cell (CD19+) and NK cell (CD16+ 56+), were significantly lower in severe group (P＜0.001). The dynamic levels of T lymphocyte in severe group were significantly lower from disease onset, but in the improved subgroup the value of T lymphocyte began to increase after about 15-day treatment and finally returned to the normal level. The cut-off value of the counts of CD3+ (576), CD4+ (391) and CD8+ (214) T cell were calculated and indicated significantly high sensitivity and specificity for severity of COVID-19. Our results shown that the decrease of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte correlated with the course of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, especially in severe cases. The level of T lymphocyte could be used as an indicator for prediction of severity and prognosis of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The application of glucocorticoid should be cautious in severe cases.

The clinical course and its correlated immune status in COVID-19 pneumonia