A Study of Red Blood Cell Indices among Covid 19 Individuals in Tertiary Care Triage Centre

Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by the development and progression of inflammatoryresponses. The exploration of prognostic predictors for patients with COVID-19 is vital for prompt clinicalintervention. Our study aims to explore the predictive value of hematological parameters in categorizationof patients with COVID-19.We aimed to investigate associations between hematological parameters anddisease severity in patients with SARS-CoV-2infection.The red blood cell distribution width (RDW),an indicator of anisocytosis has emerged as a potential tool for risk stratification of critically ill patients.Materials and Methods: Retrospective study after getting approval from Institutional ethics committeewas performed with data obtained from triage OPD in Chengalpattu Medical College & Hospital. Thedemographic, clinical, laboratory profile of COVID 19 positive patients who attended Triage OPD for aperiod of one month were collected. 3000 RT-PCR confirmed COVID positive patients of age group 20to 70 years of both genders were included in the study. COVID 19 positive paediatric cases, antenatal andpostnatal mothers, postoperative cases and sick cases admitted in COVID ICU were excluded from thestudy. Symptoms, associated co-morbidities and severity of COVID 19 were tabulated. Complete BloodCount measured by Automated Sysmex Analyser at the time of reporting to triage was noted. Red bloodcell indices were analysed using SPSS 21.0 version. Results: There was statistically significant increase inRDW and decrease in MCV among patients with co-morbidity and severe illness compared to those withmild disease. There is no statistically significant difference in Red blood cell indices between patients withand without symptoms and patients without co-morbidities. Conclusion: RDW was found to be a screeningtool to identify patients with severe COVID-19 and the results of this study suggest that RDW should be partof routine laboratory assessment and monitoring of COVID-19.