Dynamics and prognostic repeatability of qualitative and quantitative blood characteristics in patients with new coronavirus infection

The study presents the possibility of using clinical blood test indicators characterizing the red hematopoietic germ in diagnosing the severity of the clinical condition of patients with COVID-19.

Aim: Dynamic monitoring of changes in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of erythrocytes and reticulocytes to identify parameters that characterize the severe course of a new coronavirus infection in patients with cardiovascular pathology.

Material and Methods. The study included 94 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of a novel coronavirus infection (NCI), hospitalized in the department for the treatment of patients with CVD and COVID-19 with intensive care unit on the basis of the Academician L.S. Barbarasha between February and March 2022. Clinical blood analysis was performed on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day of hospitalization. Whole blood with K2EDTA was studied on a Sysmex XN-1000 hematological analyzer.

Results. To determine the diagnostically significant indicators of a clinical blood test, patients were divided into 2 comparison groups: group 1 – 71 people with a mild infection, group 2 – 23 people with moderate, severe and extremely severe NCI. On the first day of observation, 70% of patients in the group of unfavorable course were diagnosed with anemia, while in the group of mild course, 38% of patients were diagnosed. In patients with unfavorable development of the disease, normoblastemia was observed, which, according to the results of regression analysis, increased the risk of an unfavorable course by 5 times OR 0.24 (95% CI 0.07–0.884). Also in the severe group, there was a decrease in hemoglobin saturation of reticulocytes, which was expressed in deficient Ret-He and negative Delta-Hb values. Using binary logistic regression, it was found that a negative Delta-Hb 6 times increases the risk of an unfavorable course of NCI, OR 6.18 (95% CI 1.971–19.3).

Conclusion. The parameters of a clinical blood test that characterize the hemoglobinization of reticulocytes reflect the severity of the course of a new coronavirus infection and can be used to assess the clinical condition of patients with this infection.

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