Rapid Screening Of Covid-19 Patients Using White Blood Cell Scattergrams, A Study On 381 Patients

Complementary tools are warranted to increase the sensitivity of the initial testing for COVID-19. We identified a specific 'sandglass' aspect on the white blood cell scattergram of COVID-19 patients reflecting the presence of circulating plasmacytoid lymphocytes. Patients were dichotomized as COVID-19-positive or -negative based on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and chest computed tomography (CT) scan results. Sensitivity and specificity of the 'sandglass' aspect were 85 center dot 9% and 83 center dot 5% respectively. The positive predictive value was 94 center dot 3%. Our findings provide a non-invasive and simple tool to quickly categorize symptomatic patients as either COVID-19-probable or -improbable especially when RT-PCR and/or chest CT are not rapidly available.