CORRELATION OF CRP AND TOTAL LEUKOCYTE COUNT IN ACUTE INFECTIONS

Introduction: Invasion of body tissue by a disease-causing microbiological agent along with their multiplication in the host tissue is known as an infection. Objectives: The main objective of the study is to investigate the correlation of CRP and total leukocyte count in acute infections. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Health department Punjab during July 2019 to January 2020. Patients’ age, sex, focus of infection, and number and type of spaces involved were recorded. Various clinical variables of clinical severity scale including change in degree of swelling (measured by thread and scale), changes in the amount of pain (measured by verbal pain scale), presence or absence of pus, improvement in mouth opening and dysphagia or dyspnoea (if symptoms were present) were scored. Results: The data was collected from 50 patients. There was very highly significant correlation between the markers except monocytes and eosinophil. The scale indicated a strong correlation with these inflammatory markers and hence was found to be validated. The CRP showed a significant strong positive correlation as compared to TLC which showed a moderately positive correlation with clinical severity of infection. Conclusion: It is concluded that CRP and TLC including ANC are valuable markers in acute bacterial infections as they have a positive correlation with each other