Zeitschrift für klinische Toxikologie
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Joint CBC-ICT Interpretation for the Pre-surgical Screening of COVID 19 Asymptomatic Cases: A Cross-Sectional Study

Tanzeel Imran, Humera Altaf Naz, Hamza Khan, Ali Haider Bangash*, Laraib Bakhtiar Khan

Background: On the 26th,of February 2020, first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Pakistan. Since then, surgeries were halted in a bid to prevent transmission. However, since such a long halt is infeasible, a general to propose an economically feasible protocol of COVID-19 screening. Simple but effective screening strategies can help to restore the workings of hospital surgical departments.
Methods: We analyzed the clinical data of patients turning up for elective surgeries at the Rawal General Hospital (RGH), Islamabad from the 24th of March to the 15th of May, 2020. Asymptomatic patients with negative COVID-19 contact and travel histories were screened with COVID-19 Immunochromatography (ICT) IgM/IgG antibody (Ab)Test. Complete Blood Count (CBC) was done and interpreted in conjunction with the ICT results. Results: 39 patients with a mean age of 49 years were studied. The result of ICT for COVID-19 was positive in 9 cases (23%). The entire positive ICT patients population expressed significantly lower lymphocyte count (p<0.01); 8 patients had high monocyte count (p<0.05) whereas only 4 patients had a combined high neutrophil and monocyte
count (P<0.05). All of these four patients with high neutrophil count were females. The combined interpretation of CBC and ICT IgM/IgG Ab Test had a high accuracy in diagnosing asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers that were later confirmed by real-time Reverse Transcriptase