ArticleCroatian medical journal2021
Can laboratory evaluation differentiate between coronavirus disease-2019, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus infections? A retrospective cohort study.
Article in Croatian medical journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Differences in clinical characteristics between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza: a systematic review and meta-analysis.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Can Haematological Parameters Discriminate COVID-19 from Influenza?Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo identify clinical and laboratory parameters that can assist in the differential diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections.
methodsIn this retrospective cohort study, we obtained basic demographics and laboratory data from all 685 hospitalized patients confirmed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), influenza virus, or RSV from 2018 to 2020. A multiple logistic regression was employed to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and laboratory parameters.
resultsSARS-CoV-2 patients were significantly younger than RSV (P=0.001) and influenza virus (P=0.022) patients. SARS-CoV-2 patients also displayed a significant male predominance over influenza virus patients (P=0.047). They also had significantly lower white blood cell count (median 6.3×106 cells/μ) compared with influenza virus (P<0.001) and RSV (P=0.001) patients. Differences were also observed in other laboratory values but were insignificant in a multivariate analysis.
conclusionsMale sex, younger age, and low white blood cell count can assist in the diagnosis of COVID-19 over other viral infections. However, the differences between the groups were not substantial enough and would probably not suffice to distinguish between the viral illnesses in the emergency department.
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