Abstract:
Background: Thrombocytopenia and platelet indices in COVID-19 patients were important for prompt treatment and management of
the disease. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of thrombocytopenia, platelet indices, and its
association with disease severity among COVID-19 patients at the Tibebe Ghion Specialized Hospital, COVID-19 treatment center,
Northwest Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 117 conveniently recruited COVID-19 patients from March to June 2021. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected using a structured questionnaire and checklist, respectively. The platelet parameters were
analyzed by the Mindray-BC 5800 automated hematological analyzer. ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to compare the
difference between parametric and non-parametric continuous variables, respectively. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the
factors associated with thrombocytopenia. A P-value < 0.05 was defined as statistically significant for all statistical tests.
Results: Among COVID-19 patients, 45, 43 and 29 were mild, moderate and severe, respectively. 65.8% of the patients were males and
34.2% were alcohol drinkers with a mean age of 50.6 ± 15.4. Moreover, 44.4% of the patients had co-morbidity. Thrombocytopenia was
presented in 23.9% of the patients. It was 4.57 (95% CI: 1.30–16.07) and 6.10 (95% CI: 1.54–24.08) times more likely in the moderate and
severe cases compared to mild cases, respectively. Disease severity was also associated with PDW (P-value = 0.001).
Conclusion: Even though thrombocytopenia was not presented in most moderate and severe COVID-19 patients, thrombocytopenia
and PDW were associated with disease severity.
Keywords: COVID-19, Ethiopia, risk stratification, severity, thrombocytopenia
