Plasma viscosity testing: an important role in COVID-19 disease

The emergence of a novel respiratory virus in Wuhan, China in late 2019 has become an unprecedented global pandemic, one in which has infected at least 140 million people and been responsible for over 3 million deaths worldwide.¹ Originally designated 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV), the World Health Organization (WHO) formally named the disease COVID-19 with the causative virus responsible being termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

                The disease presents in the form of an asymptomatic or mild illness through to severe pneumonia. In the mild form, the disease is usually uncomplicated and patients can present with a mild fever, dry cough, sore throat, malaise and muscle aches. A new loss of taste and/or smell may occur along with diarrhoea and vomiting.

                The more moderate form of the disease causes pneumonia, with patients displaying a persistent cough and shortness of breath. Patients may require oxygen intervention at this stage. The more serious symptoms include severe pneumonia where patients typically present as tachypneic, hypoxic and in respiratory distress.² In those patients who become critically ill, the disease can lead to micro-clot formation, cytokine storms, and multi-organ failure.