Journal of Health Care and Research

Journal of Health Care and Research

Sherif Elkattawy^1*, Sarah Ayad¹, Neil Williams¹, Archanna Radakrishnan², Justin Joy², Omar Elkattawy³, Kirolos Gergis⁴, Steven J Narbut^1
1Rutgers New Jersey Medical School/Trinitas, Elizabeth, NJ, USA
²Saint George’s Medical School, Grenada, West Indies
³Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA
⁴McLaren Health Care, Flint, MI, USA

Corresponding Author: Sherif Elkattawy ^{ORCID iD}
Address: Department of Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Trinitas Regional Medical Center, Elizabeth, NJ, USA.
Received date: 16 June 2021; Accepted date: 12 July 2021; Published date: 19 July 2021

Citation: Elkattawy S, Ayad S, Williams N, Radakrishnan A, Joy J, Elkattawy O, Gergis K, Narbut SJ. A Case of Neutropenia Associated with COVID 19. J Health Care and Research. 2021 Jul 19;2(2):133-36.

Copyright © 2021 Elkattawy S, Ayad S, Williams N, Radakrishnan A, Joy J, Elkattawy O, Gergis K, Narbut SJ. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords: SARS-CoV2, COVID-19, Neutropenia, Lymphocytopenia

Abstract

SARS-CoV2 is a novel respiratory viral illness responsible for a global pandemic that started in the late 2019. Signs and symptoms being non-specific, clinicians relied on a constellation of abnormal results obtained from clinical investigations and imaging to diagnose the illness prior to the availability of widespread, timely testing. One proposed metric was the increased neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) observed in patients suffering from COVID-19. Those with higher ratios were generally admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with detrimental outcomes. Neutrophilia and lymphocytopenia were common occurrences in COVID-19 cases worldwide, even among those not severe enough to be in ICU. Here, we present a case of a 41-year-old SARS-CoV2 positive male who initially presented with fever, but then developed neutropenia. It is unknown whether his decreased neutrophil count was attributable current medications, an additional underlying infection, or whether it was due to the virus itself. Review of the literature did not yield any similar cases.

Learning Points

Prior clinical cases have shown that COVID positive patients present with an increased neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) where a higher NLR correlates to increased clinical severity; however, our case highlights a case of neutropenia in a covid-19 patient.