Neutrophil and eosinophil extracellular traps in intensive care unit Covid patients' peripheral smears

Abstract

Increasing evidence documents characteristic morphological alterations of the white cells detectable on the peripheral venous blood smear in patients with Sars-Cov2 infection, 1 moreover many of these observations seem to indicate a prognostic correlation between these and patients' outcomes. 1,2 Recently, several studies highlighted the central role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in COVID-19 pathogenesis and there are numerous evidence of an increase in smudge cells in patients with severe Sars-Cov2 infection. 2