Comparison of Whole Blood Coagulation Profiles in COVID-19 and Sepsis Patients Using a Handheld Dielectric Coagulometer

Rapid point-of-care (POC) assessment of thrombosis is clinically important in patients who develop significant blood coagulation abnormalities such as noted with sepsis or COVID-19. In this work, we compare the coagulation profiles of whole blood in sepsis and COVID-19 patients using a handheld dielectric coagulometer termed ClotChip
^®
. ClotChip
^®
is a three-dimensional, parallel-plate, capacitive sensor integrated into a single-use microfluidic channel with a total volume of <20 µL for sample analysis. The readout curve is defined as the temporal variation in the real part of dielectric permittivity of whole blood at 1 MHz. ClotChip
^®
is sensitized towards detecting altered coagulation states by adding recombinant thrombomodulin (rTM) or activated protein C (APC). Using a handheld ClotChip
^®
device, we measure the coagulation status in whole blood samples from hospitalized patients with sepsis and COVID-19 (both regular floor and intensive care unit) and compare it to samples from healthy donors. The coagulation profiles show a difference between COVID-19 and sepsis patients when samples are treated with rTM, as well as a difference between moderate and severe COVID-19 infections when samples are treated with APC. This study demonstrates that ClotChip
^®
measures a coagulation profile in COVID-19 that is different from that in sepsis, highlighting its future potential as a POC diagnostic/prognostic tool in COVID-19-associated coagulopathy.