Elevated red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with the risk of Covid-19 mortality

During this Coronavirus crisis, all the attention of clinicians around the world lays on the direct diagnosis of the COVID-19 disease, whether by PCR, Rapid Tests or classical serology. However, cell blood counting contributes importantly to the proper diagnosis of any kind of viral or bacterial infections.

Furthermore, it has been found and scientifically described that the determination of specific parameters, such like the NLR (http://normadiagnostika.com/new-nlr-parameter-battle-covid-19-available-now) gives clinicians additional pieces of information about the eventual course of the disease in a COVID-19 infected patient.

Most recently, another work of the Massachusetts General Hospital (USA) has been published and has attracted the attention of clinicians around the world. It has been found that “an elevated red blood cell distribution width (RDW, a component of complete blood counts that reflects cellular volume variation), at the time of hospital admission and an increase in RDW during hospitalization were associated with increased mortality risk for patients with COVID-19”.

The study is based on a total of 1.641 patients with COVID-19 who received treatment at 4 hospitals in a large academic medical center network.

Please use the following link to get more details about this publication, which has been published on September 23rd on the Jama Network Open. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770945

RDW is a standard parameter on all Norma CBC analyzers.