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Cureus
. 2021 Nov 9;13(11):e19387.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.19387. eCollection 2021 Nov.
Exacerbation of Secondary Cold Agglutinin Syndrome in the Setting of SARS-CoV-2
Yash V Bhagat 1 2 , Siham Hussien 1 , Helen Queenan 3 , Miriam B Michael 3 1
Affiliations
- PMID: 34925989
- PMCID: PMC8655486
- DOI: 10.7759/cureus.19387
Abstract
In this report, we present a case of exacerbation of cold agglutinin syndrome (CAS) potentially due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia. An 83-year-old female with a history of cold agglutinin hemolytic anemia presented with shortness of breath, productive cough, worsening orthopnea, darkening fingers and urine, and jaundice. Laboratory investigations found elevated white blood cells (WBC) and total bilirubin, severely low hemoglobin, and positive direct Coombs test. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was also found to be positive in a sample from the nasal swab by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), indicating exacerbation of CAS secondary to viral coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection. A treatment regime for SARS-CoV-2 consisting of five days of remdesivir and seven days of dexamethasone 6 mg IV was initiated, resulting in significant improvement in the patient's condition.
Keywords: autoimmune hemolytic anemia (aiha); cold agglutinin syndrome; covid coagulopathy; covid hypercoagulability; covid-19; covid-19 associated coagulopathy; covid-19 pneumonia; sars-cov-2; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (sars-cov-2); transfusion in covid 19 pandemic.