Routine Blood Test may Predict COVID-19 Death Risk

Routine blood test may provide key evidence to whether patients admitted to the hospital with the coronavirus face a higher risk of death, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The standard test quantifies the variation in the size of red blood cells, called red cell distribution width (RDW), which was correlated with patient death, researchers said in a statement from the hospital.

"We wanted to help discover ways to identify high-risk COVID patients as early and as easily as possible who are likely to become severely ill and may profit from aggressive interventions," stated senior author John M. Higgins, MD, an investigator in the Department of Pathology at MGH and an associate professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

The study concluded that "RDW measured at admission and during hospitalization was linked to a statistically significant rise in death. RDW is a routine lab test that may be useful in determining the risk of hospitalized patients with COVID-19."

Patients with RDW values above the normal range when they were admitted had 2.7 times higher risk of dying, with a death rate of 31 percent than 11 percent in patients with normal RDW values, the study reported. Raising RDW levels during the hospital stay were also linked to a higher risk of dying.

The researchers are currently seeking to reveal the mechanisms that cause RDW elevations in severe COVID-19 cases. "Such discoveries could point to novel treatment strategies or identify better markers of disease severity," noted co-author Aaron Aguirre.

Source-Medindia