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. 2021 Jan 7;42(2):479–489. doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04946-w

Table 4.

Laboratory and CSF studies

Mild Moderate Severe Encephalopathy cases Cases without encephalopathy OR P value
Total 12 18 13 43 12 - -
Blood tests values (median)
  Lymphocytes/mm3 1020 (705–1257) 1476 (65–2010) 980 (680 – 1460) 1150 (645–1680) 1400 (1100–2000) 1.000 (CI 0.999–1.001 0.33*
  C-reactive protein (mg/L) 71.3 (46.7–168.3) 92.7 (45.7–156.7) 115.0 (69.4–176.9) 90.2 (49.3–174.4) 36.4 (11.4–176.4) 1.002 (CI 0.996–1.008) 0.46*
  BUN (mg/dL) 22.7 (15.5–36.2) 52.6 (22.4–68.1) 64.5 (28–81.8) 35.5 (21.7–81.8) 13.1 (10.0–19.9) 1.015 (CI 1.002–1.028) 0.03**
  D-dimer (ng/ml) 1974.0 (801.5–5231) 4444.0 (1594–14,950) 4716.5 (2411.3–14,827.8) 4222.0 (1538.5–8891.3) 1469.0 (488.0–3775.3) 1.000 (CI 0.999–1.001) 0.37**
  Platelets 103/mm3 255 (166–326) 270 (213–364) 235 (189–254) 242 (173–320) 292 (218–369) 0.999 (CI 0.995–1.003) 0.66**
Abnormal blood tests
  Creatinine >1.2 (males); > 0.9 (females) mg/dL 5 (42%) 12 (67%) 10 (77%) 27 (63%) 5 (42%) 0.796 (CI 0.186–3.397) 0.76**
  Sodium > 145 mEq/L 0 (0%) 7 (39%) 3 (23%) 10 (23%) 0 (0%) 1.903 (CI 0.425–8.518) 0.40**
  Sodium < 135 mEq/L 2 (17%) 2 (11%) 2 (15%) 6 (14%) 1 (8%) 2.988 (CI 0.474–18.858) 0.24**
  NT-proBNP > 125 pg/mL 3/3 (100%) 7/8 (88%) 4/4 (100%) 14/15 (93%) 3/6 (50%) - -
  Creatinine phosphokinase > 190 (men); > 167 (women) U/L 0/8 (0%) 6/13 (46%) 3/11 (27%) 9/31 (29%) 3/10 (30%) - -
  ALT > 120 U/L 0/12 (0%) 3/17 (18%) 0/12 (0%) 3/41 (7%) 0/11 (0%) - -
  Indirect bilirubin > 0.6 mg/dL 0/10 (0%) 0/16 (0%) 0/11 (0%) 0/37 (0%) 0/10 (0%) - -
  Albumin < 3.4 g/dL 7/9 (78%) 13/14 (93%) 5/7 (71%) 25/30 (83%) 6/6 (100%) - -
  Prothrombin time ratio > 1.4 0/11 (0%) 1/16 (6%) 1/12 (8%) 2/39 (5%) 0/10 (0%) - -
Cerebrospinal fluid findings
  White blood cells > 4/mm3 0/8 (0%) 1/8 (13%) 1/7 (14%) 2/23 (9%) 0/3 (0%) - -
  Protein > 40 mg/dL 2/8 (25%) 3/8 (38%) 4/7 (57%) 9/23 (39%) 2/3 (67%) -
  Protein > 40 mg/dL without diabetes 0/8 (0%) 2/8 (25%) 3/7 (43%) 5/23 (22%) 1/3 (33%) - -
  Glucose < 50 mg/dL 1/8 (13%) 1/8 (13%) 1/7 (14%) 3/23 (13%) 0/3 (0%) - -
  Lactate > 22 mg/dL 0/8 (0%) 3/8 (38%) 2/7 (29%) 5/23 (22%) 0/3 (0%) - -
  Elevated CSF gamma-globulin 0/6 1/6 (17%) 0/6 (0%) 1/18 (5%) 1/2 (50%) - -
  Oligoclonal bands present 0/8 (0%) 0/8 (0%) 0/8 (0%) 0/23 (0%) 0/3 (0%) - -
  Interleukin 6 > 7.8 pg/mL 0/1 (0%) 1/2 (50%) 2/2 (100%) 3/5 (60%) 0/1 (0%) - -
  PCR for SARS-CoV-2 positive 0/6 (0%) 0/8 (0%) 1/7 (14%) 1/21 (4%) 0/3 (0%) - -

Data are median (IQR), mean (SD) or n/N (%). N is the total number of patients with available data and n the number of positive patients. OR, odds ratio

*Primary analysis, ordinal logistic regression

**Exploratory analysis, ordinal logistic regression