International journal of laboratory hematology
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Patients with COVID-19 are known to have a coagulopathy with a thrombosis risk. It is unknown whether this is due to a generalized humoral prothrombotic state or endothelial factors such as inflammation and dysfunction. The aim was to further characterize thrombin generation using a novel analyser (ST Genesia, Diagnostica Stago, Asnières, France) and a panel of haematological analytes in patients with COVID-19. ⋯ These results confirm increased fibrinogen and D-dimer in critical COVID-19-infected patients. Importantly, disease severity did not increase thrombin generation (including thrombin-antithrombin complexes and prothrombin fragment 1 + 2) when comparing both cohorts; counter-intuitively critical patients were hypocoaguable. tPA, TFPI and VEGF were increased in critical patients, which are hypothesized to reflect endothelial dysfunction and/or contribution of heparin (which may cause endothelial TFPI/tPA release).
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Serious bacterial infections (SBI) are major causes of mortality and morbidity in children. The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of the immature granulocyte (IG) percentage in predicting SBI. ⋯ Patients with SBI had a higher IG percentage. Compared to other biomarkers, IG percentage had higher sensitivity and specificity in predicting SBI.