TY - JOUR T1 - What We Know of the Prognostic Value of Lymphopenia in SARS-CoV-2 Infection TT - JF - IJBC JO - IJBC VL - 12 IS - 3 UR - http://ijbc.ir/article-1-1030-en.html Y1 - 2020 SP - 75 EP - 79 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - COVID-19 KW - Prognosis KW - Lymphocyte KW - Lymphopenia KW - Meta-analysis N2 - Background: Although by comparing the number of deaths to the total number of cases one may conclude that most of the infected cases are recovering, taking a look at the increasing statistics of deaths shows that SARS-CoV-2 continues to take its toll. Since lymphocytes are the main immune cells battling with rapidly evolving viruses, it comes as no surprise to assume that a decreased number of these propitious soldiers may contribute to poor prognosis of the wide range of viral infections, including COVID-19. Methods: To provide a better prospect representing the prognostic value of lymphopenia in COVID-19, we searched the national library of medicine Medline/PubMed and performed a meta-analysis of pertinent literature representing information on the lymphocyte count in COVID-19 patients. Results: The results of our meta-analysis revealed that the number of lymphocytes retains a specific clinical and biological significance in this infection and lymphopenia is seemingly an important hematological abnormality that contributes to mirror the evolution toward an unfavorable outcome. Conclusion: The rapidly evolving nature of COVID-19 together with relentless disclosure of novel findings denotes a major limitation to the current study, and further investigations in the field of prognostic biomarkers will definitively pave the way to better manage patients with severe COVID-19. M3 ER -