Newly-developed blood test could predict severity of COVID-19 infections

Scientists have developed a blood test that could help doctors predict whether a COVID-19 patient may need intensive care shortly after they develop symptoms, reports The Guardian. It may even predict how likely they are to survive the infection.

The team of scientists initially identified 27 proteins in the blood of COVID-19 patients that were present at different levels depending on symptom severity, and since then they've followed 160 patients who had their blood tested to determine if their protein signature could predict the progression of their illness. If the hypothesis is validated in hospital settings in the coming weeks, the test could be crucial in helping doctors choose whether to provide life-saving treatment in the earlier stages of infection. The coronavirus has proven particularly challenging because some patients will sometimes report feeling relatively well and then rapidly deteriorate, so the blood test could potentially help catch those cases, The Guardian notes.

"It turns out that such patients have an early inflammatory response to the infection, which we can measure in the blood and use to say, 'OK, 40 days down the line, this is your likely outcome'," said Ralser, a professor of biochemistry at the Francis Crick Institute in London and Charité University Medicine in Berlin. "Every day counts with severe COVID, and those people who need intensive care need to get it as soon as possible because this greatly increases their chances of survival."

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The test, like many COVID-19-related developments, wouldn't be a singular tool, but instead could provide important data for health care workers who are faced with difficult decisions. Read more at The Guardian.