Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Aug;81(2):205-212.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.039. Epub 2020 Jun 21.

Laboratory characteristics of patients infected with the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus

Chrysanthi Skevaki  1 , Paraskevi C Fragkou  2 , Chongsheng Cheng  3 , Min Xie  3 , Harald Renz  4
Affiliations
Review

Laboratory characteristics of patients infected with the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus

Chrysanthi Skevaki et al. J Infect. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

A subgroup of COVID-19 patients develop very severe disease with requirement for ICU treatment, ventilation, and ECMO therapy. Laboratory tests indicate that the immune and clotting system show marked alterations with hyper-activation, hyper-inflammation, cytokine storm development. Furthermore, organ-specific biomarkers demonstrate the involvement of cardiac muscle, kidney, and liver dysfunction in many patients. In this article the use of laboratory biomarkers is discussed with regard to their use for diagnosis, disease progression, and risk assessment.

Keywords: Biomarker; COVID-19; Cytokine storm; Laboratory diagnosis; SARS-CoV2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest CS and HR received consultancy fees and research funding from Hycor Biomedical and Thermo Fisher Scientific, research funding from Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), and consultancy fees from Bencard Allergie.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic overview of key laboratory characteristics during SARS-CoV-2 infections. The latter induce an increase (depicted in red) or a reduction (depicted in green) in the concentration and/or counts of a wide range of laboratory biomarkers. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Chen T., Wu Di, Chen H. Clinical characteristics of 113 deceased patients with coronavirus disease 2019, retrospective study. BMJ. 2020;368:m1091. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhou F., Yu T., Du R. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2020;395:1054–1062. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang J.-.J., Dong X., Cao Y.-.Y. Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China. Allergy. 2020;00:1–12. - PubMed
    1. Wang D., Hu B., Hu C. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA. 2020;323:1061–1069. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Henry B.M., Oliveira MHS de, Benoit S., Plebani M., Lippi G. Hematologic, biochemical and immune biomarker abnormalities associated with severe illness and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), A meta-analysis. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020;58:1021–1028. - PubMed