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Rapid screening of COVID‐19 patients using white blood cell scattergrams, a study on 381 patients
Author(s) -
Osman Jennifer,
Lambert Jérome,
Templé Marie,
Devaux Floriane,
Favre Rémy,
Flaujac Claire,
Bridoux Delphine,
MarqueJuillet Stéphanie,
Bruneel Fabrice,
Mig François,
DiazFlores Ernesto,
Hentgen Véronique,
GrederBelan Alix,
Azarian Reza,
Koukabi Mehrsa,
Rousselot Philippe,
Raggueneau Victoria,
Manéglier Benjamin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/bjh.16943
Subject(s) - covid-19 , white blood cell , medicine , predictive value , polymerase chain reaction , predictive value of tests , pathology , radiology , biology , gene , biochemistry , disease , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Summary Complementary tools are warranted to increase the sensitivity of the initial testing for COVID‐19. We identified a specific ‘sandglass’ aspect on the white blood cell scattergram of COVID‐19 patients reflecting the presence of circulating plasmacytoid lymphocytes. Patients were dichotomized as COVID‐19‐positive or ‐negative based on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and chest computed tomography (CT) scan results. Sensitivity and specificity of the ‘sandglass’ aspect were 85·9% and 83·5% respectively. The positive predictive value was 94·3%. Our findings provide a non‐invasive and simple tool to quickly categorize symptomatic patients as either COVID‐19‐probable or ‐improbable especially when RT‐PCR and/or chest CT are not rapidly available.