Complete Blood Count and Peripheral Smear Findings in Patients with COVID-19: An Institutional Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21276/apalm.3755Keywords:
covid-19, blood count, blood smear, rt-pcrAbstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) 1st emerged in Wuhan province of China, caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus in December 2019. COVID-19 has systemic manifestations, including hematologic manifestations. Complete blood count (CBC) has been recommended as a valuable tool for patient monitoring.Methodology: Our study was an ambispective study on COVID-19-positive patients whose complete blood count samples and peripheral smears. We analysed 700 patients with COVID-19 and recruited perfectly matched controls (COVID Negative) of similar age and gender. Result: The study included 700 cases (125 cases CBC with peripheral smears and the remaining 575 with only CBC) with an additional 60 COVID PCR negative and 60 COVID-recovered patients. COVID-19-positive patients had a mean age of 49.5 years with an M: F ratio. ESR mean value was 36mm in 1st hr. TLC count of 10.06 *103/µL whereas the COIVD recovered, and COVID-negative patients had TLC in the mean of 7.32*103/µL & 8.03*103/µL and was significant (p-value 0.000). A comparison of leucocyte counts among the three groups showed that the neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil count and their absolute values being statistically significant. Platelet count, MPV, and PDW were also significant among the three groups of patients. Discussion & Conclusion: Peripheral smear evaluation of COVID-19 patients could provide an insight into the severity of disease and multi-organ involvement. Morphological analysis by a trained pathologist cannot be entirely replaced by artificial intelligence. When looked at by a trained pathologist, subtle shape, size, and morphology variations can help adequately manage patients.
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