Table 1:

Changes in the use of clinical laboratories (number of requests and tests performed) between the pandemic period (March–December 2020) and the same prepandemic period (March–December 2019).

	March–December 2020, n	March–December 2019, n	Absolute differences, n	Relative differences, %	p-Valuea
Total requests	2,611,129	3,173,523	−562,394	−17.7	<0.001
Primary care requests	749,444	1,197,783	−448,339	−37.4	<0.001
Hospitalization ward requests	570,271	551,235	19,036	3.5	0.449
Outpatient unit requests	646,752	743,894	−97,142	−13.1	<0.001
Urgent requests	766,366	805,420	−39,054	−4.9	0.006
ICU requests	103,814	58,797	45,017	76.6	<0.001
Total tests	25,617,642	31,357,303	−5,739,661	−18.3	<0.001
Glucose	1,608,217	2,061,963	−453,746	−22.0	<0.001
Creatinine	1,432,234	1,782,129	−349,895	−19.6	<0.001
Total cholesterol	969,661	1,332,265	−362,604	−27.2	<0.001
AST	1,009,605	1,197,242	−187,637	−15.7	<0.001
C-reactive protein	730,604	805,277	−74,673	−9.3	0.107
Ferritin	477,800	513,024	−35,224	−6.9	0.318
IL-6	11,899	53	11,846	22,350.9	<0.001
Troponin	155,194	105,700	49,494	46.8	<0.001
TSH	558,758	773,631	−214,873	−27.8	<0.001
HbA1c	274,037	363,784	−89,747	−24.7	<0.001
CEA	63,646	73,014	−9,368	−12.8	0.007
PSA	124,914	174,656	−49,742	−28.5	<0.001
FOB	70,723	130,424	−59,701	−45.8	<0.001
Qualitative urine test	490,504	701,910	−211,406	−30.1	<0.001
Arterial blood gas	164,800	121,227	43,573	35.9	<0.001
Venous blood gas	193,295	195,137	−1,842	−0.9	0.560
D-dimer	170,312	23,748	146,564	617.2	<0.001

^aNon-parametric Wilcoxon’s test for paired data (n=70). AST, aspartate aminotransferase; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; HbA_1c, glycated haemoglobin; IL-6, interleukin 6; PSA, prostate-specific antigen; FOB, foecal occult blood; TSH, thyrotropin.