Beckman Coulter has announced that its MDW-SARS CoV-2 application has achieved CE markingark for its MDW application as an aid in identifying adult patients with risk of having SARS-CoV-2 viral infection when presenting to the accident and emergency department.
Monocyte distribution width (MDW) is a measure of increased morphological variability of monocytes in response to bacterial, viral or fungal infections. It is an in vitro diagnostic parameter automatically reported as part of complete blood count (CBC) with differential, and is routinely requested in A&E. MDW is the only proprietary, regulatory-cleared haematological biomarker exclusive to Beckman Coulter analysers that aids in identifying the risk of severe infection and sepsis in adult patients in A&E.
Several influential European studies reported an elevation of MDW in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. These studies have evidenced that MDW is significantly higher in patients with COVID-19 than those without, suggesting that MDW measurement while awaiting SARS-CoV-2 molecular results could allow for prompt differential diagnoses in emergency settings.
The observations are consistent with the current understanding of COVID-19 as a multi-organ disease resulting from an increased response in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines through the activity of morphologically differentiated monocytes.