ArticleSaudi medical journal2021
The use of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a marker for COVID-19 infection in Saudi Arabia: A case-control retrospective multicenter study.
Article in Saudi medical journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Value of the Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio in Predicting COVID-19 Severity: A Meta-analysis.Disease markers · 2021Pooled it
- Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index, and HALP Score as Predictors of Mortality in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Immune-inflammatory-nutritional dysfunction in HIV-negative patients with asymptomatic neurosyphilis: a retrospective comparative study.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- The predictive role of inflammation indices derived from complete blood count in severe COVID-19 patients: a study from the United Arab Emirates.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Back to Basics: The Diagnostic Value of a Complete Blood Count in the Clinical Management of COVID-19.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Assessing the Diagnostic Values of the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) and Systematic Immunoinflammatory Index (SII) as Biomarkers in Predicting COVID-19 Severity: A Multicentre Comparative Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Association of biomarkers with successful ventilatory weaning in COVID-19 patients: an observational study.Critical care science · 2024Observational
- Developing a COVID-19 Mortality Prediction (CoMPred) Indicator for ICU Diabetic Patients Treated with Tocilizumab in Saudi Arabia: A Proof-of-Concept Study.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- A Retrospective Analysis of the Association of Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) with Anemia in the Saudi Population.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Prognostic Value of Routine Biomarkers in the Early Stage of COVID-19.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- The Reasons behind COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy among the Parents of Children Aged between 5 to 11 Years Old in Saudi Arabia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Epidemiological Characteristics and Outcomes Predictors for Intensive Care Unit COVID-19 Patients in Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Retrospective Cohort Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2023Article
- Role of T cells in cervical cancer.Bioinformation · 2023Review
- Clinical Significance and Diagnostic Utility of NLR, LMR, PLR and SII in the Course of COVID-19: A Literature Review.Journal of inflammation research · 2023Review
- The Diagnostic Value of Kinetics of NLR to Identify Secondary Pulmonary Bacterial Infection Among COVID-19 Patients at Single Tertiary Hospital in Indonesia.International journal of general medicine · 2023Article
- Comparative Analysis of Red Blood Cells, White Blood Cells, Platelet Count, and Indices in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients and Normal Controls: Association and Clinical Implications.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2023Article
- Differential Characteristics of Patients for Hospitalized Severe COVID-19 Infected by the Omicron Variants and Wild Type of SARS-CoV-2 in China.Journal of inflammation research · 2023Article
- Assessing the Impact of Use and Trust in Different Sources of Information on COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake in Saudi Arabia (SA) Using the COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Resistance in SA (CoV-HERSA) Tool.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Article
- The Cost-Effectiveness of Requesting a Complete Blood Count (CBC) in the Management of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) diagnostic and prognostic value in the context of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection in Saudi Arabia.
methodsA case-control study in which 701 confirmed COVID-19 patients (of which 41 were intensive care unit [ICU]-admitted) and 250 control subjects were enrolled. The study was conducted retrospectively in October on patients admitted to 3 separate hospitals in Saudi Arabia namely: King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz University Hospital (Riyadh), Ohud Hospital (Madinah), and Nojood Medical Center (Madinah) between May and September 2020. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was calculated based on absolute neutrophil and lymphocyte count. Institutional ethical approval was obtained prior to the study.
resultsPatients (median age 35 years), of which 54.8% were females, were younger than the control cohort (median age 48 years). Patients had significantly higher NLR compared to the control group. Intensive care unit admitted patients had significantly higher platelet, WBC and neutrophil counts. The ICU patients' NLR was almost twice as of the non-intensive patients. The NLR value of 5.5 was found to be of high specificity (96.4%) and positive predictive value (91.4%) in diagnosing COVID-19. Furthermore, it had a very good sensitivity (86.4%) in predicting severe forms of disease, such as, ICU admission.
conclusionNeutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is an important tool in determining the COVID-19 clinical status. This study further confirms the prognostic value of NLR in detecting severe infection, and those patients with high NLR should be closely monitored and managed.
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