Abstract

Introduction:
COVID 19 has emerged as a new pandemic affecting people across the globe. It is caused by the novel coronavirus and causes significant morbidity and mortality. As the disease is new, literature on the disease is also very less. Few articles have come up with the observations stating that certain morphological findings are more often seen in the peripheral smear of COVID 19 patients. Currently, many blood parameters apart from the clinical symptoms are measured to assess the disease's severity and plan the management.
Objectives:
The study aimed to observe the peripheral smear findings of hospitalized covid patients and the morphological differences in the spectrum of findings between patients with different severity of the disease.
Materials and methods:
Morphological changes in blood cells (RBCs, WBCs and platelets) of 100 covid patients, including 24 patients admitted to ICU, were studied. The morphological changes in RBCs, WBCs and platelets were listed and analysed.
Results: morphological changes in lymphocytes and neutrophils were more common than changes in the other blood cells. Among the changes observed, reactive lymphocytes, neutrophils with toxic changes and hypolobated nuclei were the most common. All the changes were more prominent in the smears of patients admitted to intensive care units.
Conclusion: The spectrum of morphological changes is seen in the blood cells of covid patients, which can be used as markers in categorising the severity of the disease.

Key words: COVID 19, Morphological changes, Acquired pseudo Pelger-Heut anomaly, Toxic Changes, NLR