Ballaz, Santiago J.Pulgar Sánchez, MaryChamorro, KevinFernández Moreira, EstebanRamírez, HégiraMora, Francisco X.Fors, Martha2025-10-162025-10-162021-03-05Ballaz, S., Pulgar-Sánchez, M., Chamorro, K., Fernández-Moreira, E., Ramírez, H., Mora, F. & Fors, M. (2021). Common laboratory tests as indicators of COVID-19 severity on admission at high altitude: a single-center retrospective study in Quito (ECUADOR). Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), 59(8), e326-e329. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2021-01561434-662110.1515/cclm-2021-0156https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/124999The current outbreak of SARS-Cov-2, a virus responsible for the coronavirus disease (namely COVID-19) in Wuhan (CHINA), has infected 107.1 million and caused over 2.34 million deaths worldwide (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). The main symptoms after infection are fever, dry cough, and fatigue, although disease severity can increase thereafter showing strong inter-individual differences. At worst, severe cases (4.7–6.1%) quickly progress to an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock, difficult-to-correct metabolic acidosis, coagulation dysfunction, and multiple organ failure. The fatality rate indeed reaches a 61.5% of the critically ill patients. In the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, prediction of disease severity is an urgent clinical need. COVID-19 prognosis largely relies on the clinical symptoms and computed tomography exams. In the hope to help risk-stratification and guide the timing of admission, some studies have also reported laboratory fluctuations in routine blood tests, which could become the mainstay for the forecasting of COVID-19 patients and the lessening of mortality [1]. Nevertheless, the characterization of the hematological and biochemical findings predicting COVID-19 severity are preliminary due to the low sample sizes, different proportions of severe patients, and geographic selection bias, and should therefore be taken with caution. Hematological biomarkers of COVID-19 severity requires validation by using larger samples of patients from different geographic localizations and ethnic groups across the globe.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article1437-4331https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2021-0156https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/cclm-2021-0156/htmlopen access576biomarkersclinical laboratory techniquesCOVID-19epidemiologyCiencias Biomédicas32 Ciencias Médicas