AUTHOR=Zhang Jianguo , Hu Jianhui , Huang Xing , Fu Shixiang , Ding Daoyin , Tao Zhimin TITLE=Association Between Red Blood Cell Distribution Width and COVID-19 Severity in Delta Variant SARS-CoV-2 Infection JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.837411 DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.837411 ISSN=2296-858X ABSTRACT=

Studies have discovered that wild-type SARS-CoV-2 infections are commonly linked to abnormalities in the hematological profiles of COVID-19 patients, one such abnormality being characterized by elevations in red blood cell distribution width (RDW). Whether this linkage reoccurs in delta variant SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unexamined. Here we compared baseline blood parameters in COVID-19 patients infected by wild type and its delta variant, respectively. Our results here point to that although the delta variant has shown increased virulence, transmissibility, and vaccine escape, it has a minimally negative impact on RDW values that were previously found prognostic for COVID-19 severity.