key: cord-0810266-0wcw24i3
authors: Zeng, Xiaoqian; Xing, Hui; Wei, Yan; Tang, Zhaoming; Lu, Xiao; Wang, Zhao; Liu, Yuying; Xu, Liang; Hu, Lihua; Wang, Lin; Xu, Dongsheng
title: Monocyte volumetric parameters and lymph index are increased in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection
date: 2020-09-27
journal: Int J Lab Hematol
DOI: 10.1111/ijlh.13323
sha: b46be2929069f84bbb9284a8aa63db2eae6a148f
doc_id: 810266
cord_uid: 0wcw24i3

nan

respond to invading intracellular pathogenic organisms, such as SARS-CoV-2. The immune defense against a viral infection includes monocyte and natural killer cell activation, subsequent lymphocyte stimulation, proliferation, differentiation and cytokine or antibody secretion. It is imaginable that these functionally activated immune cells may undergo morphologic changes as compared to their normal "resting" counterparts. A classic example is that the numbers of atypical lymphocytes are significantly increased in infectious mononucleosis caused by Epstein-Barr virus infection. Recent studies also demonstrated that alteration in peripheral lymphocyte subsets was associated with the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 5 and the lymphocyte morphologic parameters were also altered in other viral infections. [6] [7] [8] VCS technology uses Coulter Principle of direct current impedance for the cell volume (V) of all cell types, radio frequency opacity to evaluate cellular conductivity (C) for cytoplasmic chemical composition and nuclear volume, and the coherent light of a laser beam to measure multiple angled light scatters (S) for cell surface topography, cytoplasmic granularity, and nuclear structure. These morphometric measurements of peripheral blood leukocytes are known as cell population data (CPD These parameters are generated during automated leukocyte differential analysis and offer more robust turn around time. Although a larger prospective study is needed to confirm that our findings can be standardized across multiple laboratories using similar or other instruments and to determine whether these results perform better when monitored over time, we believe that the mononuclear cell volumetric parameters, lymph index and the MDW, may have potential to be used as viral biomarkers in hematology laboratory and would provide clinicians with valuable information during initial phase of patient evaluation.

The authors have no competing interests.

Xiaoqian Zeng supervised the project, collected and analyzed data. 

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