Introduction
The coronavirus, which is accepted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), as a member of the beta-coronavirus family, can affect all age groups and may appear with different clinical pictures (1). In the fight against this coronavirus (COVID-19) disease that causes a worldwide pandemic, the clinical and laboratory indicators of the progression towards severe and lethal forms need to be urgently identified. These predictors will enable risk classification, guide interventional efforts to target patients at high risk of developing severe disease and optimize the allocation of limited healthcare workers and technical resources in the ongoing pandemic. Moreover, defining the laboratory parameters that could be used to predict the clinical course of cases will allow an increase in clinical situational awareness. Therefore, monitoring of COVID-19 patients and effective early intervention are the most fundamental measures that can improve survival.
In line with the information obtained, the inflammatory response plays a critical role in the progression of COVID-19. It was reported that, on the one side, how the changes in acute phase reactants in COVID-19 cases affect the course of the disease remains unclear, on the other side, it plays a significant role in disease severity and mortality. (1,2). In some studies, hematological parameters are defined as potential indicators of disease severity (3,4). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive study on hematological parameters, especially MPV, in adults who are infected with COVID-19.
Hematological and inflammatory parameters such as white blood cell count (WBC), lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, platelet count, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), ferritin, D-dimer, fibrinogen, procalcitonin and C-reactive protein (CRP) in COVID-19 patients were defined as prognostic indicators of the disease (5-8).
We think that our findings will provide more information about the role of these indicators in determining the clinical course of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Our aim in this study is to evaluate whether hematological and inflammatory biomarkers have prognostic effects and their effects on the duration of hospitalization in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 with PCR positivity and followed up by hospitalization.