Publications by authors named "Chiara Della Franca"
Article Synopsis
- SARS-CoV-2 can lead to a range of symptoms from none at all to severe cases like sepsis, prompting interest in how platelet indices relate to COVID-19 severity.
- A systematic review of various studies found that platelet distribution width (PDW) values were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients, indicating potential connections between increased PDW and disease severity or mortality.
- Though many studies suggested a link between elevated PDW levels and severe outcomes, the overall inconsistency in findings means further research is needed to clarify PDW's role as a prognostic biomarker in COVID-19.
Objectives: Extracellular histone levels are associated with the severity of many human pathologies, including sepsis and COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the role of extracellular histones on monocyte distribution width (MDW), and their effect on the release of cytokines by blood cells.
Methods: Peripheral venous blood was collected from healthy subjects and treated with different doses of a histone mixture (range 0-200 μg/mL) to analyze MDW modifications up-to 3 h and digital microscopy of blood smears.
Objective: Histone proteins are physiologically involved in DNA packaging and gene regulation but are extracellularly released by neutrophil/monocyte extracellular traps and mediate thrombo-inflammatory pathways, associated to the severity of many human pathologies, including bacterial/fungal sepsis and COVID-19. Prominent and promising laboratory features in classic and viral sepsis emphasize monocyte distribution width (MDW), due to its ability to distinguish and stratify patients at higher risk of critical conditions or death. No data are available on the roles of histones as MDW modifiers.
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