CRP and respiratory failure: Furthermore, deceased patients had lower values of blood lymphocyte count (median 742 vs. 1105 N/mm3, p = .01), higher values of CRP (median 14 vs. 5.1 mg/dl, p = .0001) and procalcitonin (median 1.05 vs. 0.1 ng/ml, p = .0001) and showed a higher frequency of renal (67% vs. 31%) and respiratory failure (81% vs. 55%) at admission (p = .05 for both), than the patients who were discharged.