Clinical features and hematological findings of COVID-19 patients with blood transfusion

This paper aims to illustrate the clinical characteristics, hematological findings, and blood transfusion information of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Twenty-three COVID-19 patients were treated and trans-fused with blood products in Wuhan First Hospital from February 12 to March 20, 2020. The patients were divided into a survivor group and a non-survivor group, respectively, according to whether the patient had been discharged or died. The results demonstrated at the time of initial blood transfusion, that the non-survivor group possessed a lower platelet (PLT) than that of the survivor group (P < 0.001), and PLT were below the normal range in 6 (85.7%) non-survivor group and in 2 (12.5%) survivor group (P < 0.01). Over half of these patients had abnormalities in fibrinogen (FIB), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), and international nor-malized ratio (INR), but no significant difference was found between the non-survivor group and survivor group. The non-survivor group had a dramatically higher D-Dimers and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) scores than those of the survivor group (P < 0.01). Six (85.7%) non-survivors but none of the survivors had a DIC score greater than 6 (P < 0.001). Fifteen (93.8%) survivors and 2 (28.6%) non-survivors were transfused with RBC (P < 0.01). The non-survivors (5/7) possessed a higher proportion for using AP than the survivors (2/16). The study suggests that COVID-19 patients who undergo blood transfusion usually possess coagulation dysfunction, and DIC may be closely related to deteriorating clinical outcomes.