ABSTRACT
Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW), a new cytometric parameter correlating with cytomorphologic changes occurring upon massive monocyte activation, has recently emerged as promising early biomarker of sepsis. Similar to sepsis, monocyte/macrophage subsets are considered key mediators of the life-threatening hyper-inflammatory disorder characterizing severe COVID-19. In this study, we longitudinally analyzed MDW values in a cohort of 87 COVID-19 patients consecutively admitted to our hospital, showing significant correlations between MDW and common inflammatory markers, namely CRP (p < 0.001), fibrinogen (p < 0.001) and ferritin (p < 0.01). Moreover, high MDW values resulted to be prognostically associated with fatal outcome in COVID-19 patients (AUC = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.66-0.87, sensitivity 0.75, specificity 0.70, MDW threshold 26.4; RR = 4.91, 95% CI: 1.73-13.96; OR = 7.14, 95% CI: 2.06-24.71). This pilot study shows that MDW can be useful in the monitoring of COVID-19 patients, as this innovative hematologic biomarker is: (1) easy to obtain, (2) directly related to the activation state of a fundamental inflammatory cell subset (i.e. monocytes, pivotal in both cytokine storm and sepsis immunopathogenesis), (3) well correlated with clinical severity of COVID-19-associated inflammatory disorder, and, in turn, (4) endowed with relevant prognostic significance. Additional studies are needed to define further the clinical impact of MDW testing in the management of COVID-19 patients.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/blood , Cell Size , Monocytes/pathology , SARS-CoV-2 , Severity of Illness Index , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Biomarkers/blood , C-Reactive Protein/analysis , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/virology , Female , Ferritins/blood , Fibrinogen/analysis , Humans , Inflammation/blood , Italy/epidemiology , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Patient Admission , Pilot Projects , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Sensitivity and Specificity , Young AdultSubject(s)
COVID-19/complications , Herpes Simplex/complications , Herpesvirus 1, Human/isolation & purification , Massive Hepatic Necrosis/complications , Viremia/complications , Acyclovir/therapeutic use , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , COVID-19/pathology , COVID-19/therapy , Disease Management , Herpes Simplex/pathology , Herpes Simplex/therapy , Herpesvirus 1, Human/drug effects , Humans , Intensive Care Units , Male , Massive Hepatic Necrosis/pathology , Massive Hepatic Necrosis/therapy , Middle Aged , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification , Severity of Illness Index , Viremia/pathology , Viremia/therapyABSTRACT
PURPOSE: We report a case of a patient with a known hereditary spherocytosis who developed a bilateral macular hemorrhage in concurrence with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related respiratory syndrome. OBSERVATIONS: Blood tests showed severe hemolytic anemia. Interestingly, the peripheral blood smear demonstrated a mixed pathogenesis of the hemolytic process (cold-agglutinin-mediated and non-immune-mediated due to spherocytosis). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE: We argue that SARS-CoV-2 could have triggered the hemolytic process, which led to retinal hemorrhages due to endothelial anoxia from the low oxygen carrying capacity.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global public health emergency with many clinical facets, and new knowledge about its pathogenetic mechanisms is deemed necessary; among these, there are certainly coagulation disorders. In the history of medicine, autopsies and tissue sampling have played a fundamental role in order to understand the pathogenesis of emerging diseases, including infectious ones; compared to the past, histopathology can be now expanded by innovative techniques and modern technologies. For the first time in worldwide literature, we provide a detailed postmortem and biopsy report on the marked increase, up to 1 order of magnitude, of naked megakaryocyte nuclei in the bone marrow and lungs from serious COVID-19 patients. Most likely related to high interleukin-6 serum levels stimulating megakaryocytopoiesis, this phenomenon concurs to explain well the pulmonary abnormal immunothrombosis in these critically ill patients, all without molecular or electron microscopy signs of megakaryocyte infection.
Subject(s)
Betacoronavirus/pathogenicity , Bone Marrow/pathology , Coronavirus Infections/pathology , Cytokine Release Syndrome/pathology , Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation/pathology , Lung/pathology , Pneumonia, Viral/pathology , Thrombosis/pathology , Adult , Aged , Autopsy , Betacoronavirus/immunology , Bone Marrow/immunology , Bone Marrow/virology , COVID-19 , Cell Nucleus/immunology , Cell Nucleus/pathology , Cell Nucleus/virology , Coronavirus Infections/complications , Coronavirus Infections/immunology , Coronavirus Infections/virology , Critical Illness , Cytokine Release Syndrome/complications , Cytokine Release Syndrome/immunology , Cytokine Release Syndrome/virology , Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation/complications , Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation/immunology , Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation/virology , Fatal Outcome , Host-Pathogen Interactions/immunology , Humans , Interleukin-6/biosynthesis , Interleukin-6/immunology , Lung/immunology , Lung/virology , Male , Megakaryocytes/immunology , Megakaryocytes/pathology , Megakaryocytes/virology , Middle Aged , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Viral/complications , Pneumonia, Viral/immunology , Pneumonia, Viral/virology , SARS-CoV-2 , Severity of Illness Index , Thrombopoiesis/immunology , Thrombosis/complications , Thrombosis/immunology , Thrombosis/virologySubject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , Immunoglobulin G/analysis , Laryngostenosis/immunology , Plasma Cells/immunology , SARS-CoV-2 , Th2 Cells/immunology , Trachea/immunology , Tracheostomy/adverse effects , Aged , Cicatrix/etiology , Cicatrix/immunology , Diagnosis, Differential , Fibrosis , Humans , Immunoglobulin G4-Related Disease/diagnosis , Laryngostenosis/etiology , Laryngostenosis/pathology , Male , Plasma Cells/pathology , Trachea/pathology , Trachea/surgeryABSTRACT
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing public health emergency and new knowledge about its immunopathogenic mechanisms is deemed necessary in the attempt to reduce the death burden, globally. For the first time in worldwide literature, we provide scientific evidence that in COVID-19 vasculitis a life-threatening escalation from type 2 T-helper immune response (humoral immunity) to type 3 hypersensitivity (immune complex disease) takes place. The subsequent deposition of immune complexes inside the vascular walls is supposed to induce a severe inflammatory state and a cytokine release syndrome, whose interleukin-6 is the key myokine, from the smooth muscle cells of blood vessels.