Blood Biomarker Test Rapidly Identifies COVID-19 Patients Likely to Develop Severe Infection and Require Ventilator

A new blood biomarker test rapidly detects the severity of COVID-19 infections when a person with flu-like symptoms first presents to a clinic and allows clinicians to know at onset of symptoms if the patient will need ventilation.

The blood biomarker test developed by scientists at Queensland University of Technology (QUT; Brisbane, Australia) could inform doctors those patients that were likely to develop a severe infection and require a ventilator when they first present and thus differentiate them from patients likely to experience a milder case and who could go home and self-isolate.

“Using high-resolution imaging and genomic profiling, we were able to map the presence of the virus in the lungs down to the single cells present in the lung tissue,” said Dr. More...