A blood test on hospital admission showing the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 can identify patients at a high risk of severe COVID-19.
A blood test on hospital admission showing the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 can identify patients at a high risk of severe COVID-19. Admitted patients without virus in their blood have a good chance of rapid recovery. This according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital in a new study published in the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Blood samples were taken from patients with a confirmed COVID-19 infection within three days of admission to the Department of Infectious Diseases, Danderyd Hospital, Sweden. Patients with measurable levels of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in their blood were seven times more likely to develop critical symptoms and eight times more likely to die within 28 days.
“This readily available test allows us to identify patient groups at high or low risk of severe COVID-19, which enables us to better guide the treatment and monitoring of these patients”, says the study’s lead author Karl Hagman, infectious diseases consultant at Danderyd Hospital and doctoral student at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Sciences at the same hospital.
Read more at Karolinska Institutet
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