Frontiers in Medicine (Feb 2022)

Association Between Red Blood Cell Distribution Width and COVID-19 Severity in Delta Variant SARS-CoV-2 Infection

  • Jianguo Zhang,
  • Jianhui Hu,
  • Xing Huang,
  • Shixiang Fu,
  • Daoyin Ding,
  • Zhimin Tao,
  • Zhimin Tao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.837411
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Studies have discovered that wild-type SARS-CoV-2 infections are commonly linked to abnormalities in the hematological profiles of COVID-19 patients, one such abnormality being characterized by elevations in red blood cell distribution width (RDW). Whether this linkage reoccurs in delta variant SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unexamined. Here we compared baseline blood parameters in COVID-19 patients infected by wild type and its delta variant, respectively. Our results here point to that although the delta variant has shown increased virulence, transmissibility, and vaccine escape, it has a minimally negative impact on RDW values that were previously found prognostic for COVID-19 severity.

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