The differential diagnostic role of complete blood cell count parameters in patients with bacterial pneumonia from non-bacterial pneumonia

Background currently, the differential diagnosis of pneumonia is challenging. As a result, the uses of less challenging and easily affordable methods, such as complete blood cell (CBC) parameters, are important. However, the differential diagnostic role of CBC parameters in pneumonia has not been well studied. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the differential diagnostic role of CBC parameters in patients with bacterial pneumonia from non-bacterial pneumonia. Methods A cross-sectional study with Systematic random sampling was conducted in 234 patients. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected by trained nurses via a semi-structured questionnaire. In addition, sputum and 5mL of the venous blood sample were collected. X - ray and sputum examinations were performed for initial screening of study participants. The blood was s ubsequently analyzed with mindray-5150 hematology analyzer. The data were entered into Epi-data (3.0.4) and analyzed via SPSS (25.0 ). The summary statistics were used. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare median differences between groups. The area under the curve (AUC) determined via the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. P-value < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistically significance. Results A total of 234 study participants were included in the present study. The total WBC, ANC, PLT, NLR, AMC, and MLR values were higher and the AEC levels were lower in the bacterial group than in the non-bacterial group. The ROC curve results revealed that WBC and ANC had higher AUC (0.75 (95% CI: 0.68, 0. 82) and0.74 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.81), respectively) values than the other variables did. Moreover, the WBC and ANC count for vomiting, dyspnea, and both, had good discriminative ability for the diagnosis of pneumonia with AUCs of 0.78, 0.79 and 0.77 vs 0.77, 0.78, and 0.76, respectively. Conclusion and Recommendation: Blood parameters notably, WBC and ANC had greater differential diagnostic value for the differentiation of pneumonia. Moreover, the combination of WBC and ANC count with clinical parameters had good discriminative ability for the differential diagnosis of pneumonia. Therefore, regular screening of blood parameters and/or with clinical symptoms in patients with bacterial pneumonia is important for early diagnosis.