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Measuring Deformability and Red Cell Heterogeneity in Blood by Ektacytometry
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Published on: January 12, 2018

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SARS-CoV-2 Impact on Red Blood Cell Morphology

Kirill A Kondratov1,2,3, Alexander A Artamonov2, Vladimir Yu Mikhailovskii3

  • 1City Hospital No. 40, St. Petersburg 197706, Russia.

Biomedicines
|November 25, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Severe COVID-19 infection alters red blood cell shapes and sizes. While no COVID-19-specific erythrocyte abnormalities were found, patients showed more acanthocytes and larger size variations.

Area of Science:

  • Hematology
  • Virology
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Severe COVID-19 significantly impacts blood cell characteristics.
  • Research has predominantly focused on leukocytes, with less attention to erythrocyte morphology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Identify erythrocyte morphology abnormalities in COVID-19 patients.
  • Compare poikilocyte types and measure erythrocyte size dispersion.
  • Investigate red blood cell size variability in severe COVID-19.

Main Methods:

  • Low-voltage scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM) was used.
  • Examined red blood cells from 6 healthy controls and 5 COVID-19 patients.
  • Quantified erythrocyte morphology and size distribution.

Main Results:

  • No erythrocyte morphology abnormalities were specific to COVID-19.
  • COVID-19 patients exhibited increased acanthocytes (p=0.01) and decreased spherocytes (p=0.03).
  • Erythrocyte size showed increased median (p=0.004) and interquartile range (p=0.009) in COVID-19 patients.

Conclusions:

  • COVID-19 is associated with altered erythrocyte size dispersion and specific shape changes (acanthocytosis, reduced spherocytosis).
  • Further research with larger cohorts is needed due to the small study size.

Keywords:
COVID-19cytokine stormerythrocyteerythrocyte sizelow-voltage scanning electron microscopyred blood cellssevere COVID-19

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