ISTH Academy

Summary
Background
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), which causes novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), is spreading rapidly around the world. Thrombocytopenia in patients with COVID‐19 has not been fully studied. Objective
To describe thrombocytopenia in patients with COVID‐19. Methods
For each of 1476 consecutive patients with COVID‐19 from Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan, China, nadir platelet count during hospitalization was retrospectively collected and categorized into (0, 50], (50, 100], (100 ‐ 150] or (150 ‐ ) group after taking the unit (× 109/L) away from the report of nadir platelet count. Nadir platelet counts and in‐hospital mortality were analyzed. Results
Among all patients, 238 (16.1%) patients deceased and 306 (20.7%) had thrombocytopenia. Compared with survivors, non‐survivors were older, were more likely to have thrombocytopenia and had lower nadir platelet counts. The in‐hospital mortality was 92.1%, 61.2%, 17.5% and 4.7% for (0, 50], (50, 100], (100 ‐ 150] and (150 ‐ ) group, respectively. With (150 ‐ ) as the reference, nadir platelet counts of (100 ‐ 150], (50, 100] and (0, 50] group had a relative risk of 3.42 (95% CI 2.36 ‐ 4.96), 9.99 (95% CI 7.16 ‐ 13.94) and 13.68 (95% CI 9.89 ‐ 18.92), respectively. Conclusions
Thrombocytopenia is common in patients with COVID‐19, and it is associated with increased risk of in‐hospital mortality. The lower the platelet count is, the higher the mortality becomes