Haemolysis index conundrum in a COVID-19 patient

Chong Qin Michael Zhao1, Jordan Steinberg2, Dennise Otero Espinal3

  • 1Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Northwell Health North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York, USA.

PubMed

In this study, we report a preanalytical challenge noted in our laboratory on plasma samples from a critically ill COVID-19 patient treated with hydroxychloroquine. This is significant because, in critically ill COVID-19 patients on hydroxychloroquine, plasma samples can have a high measured haemolysis index in the absence of haemolysis, with the impact on reporting the results for potassium and other analytes.