Backround Data about the morphological changes of Covid-19 infection in peripheral blood smear are limited and association with clinical severity of the disease are not known yet. We aimed to examine the characteristics of the cells detected in the pathological rate and / or appearance and whether these findings are related to the clinical course by evaluating the peripheral blood smear at the time of diagnosis in Covid-19 patients. Methods Clinical features, laboratory data, peripheral blood smear of fifty patients diagnosed with Covid-19 by PCR was evaluated at diagnosis. Peripheral smear samples of the patients were compared with the age and sex matched 30 healthy controls. Pictures were taken from the paitients’peripheral blood smear. Patients were divided into two groups. Early and advanced stage patient groups were compared in terms of laboratory data and peripheral smear findings. The relationship between the laboratory values of all patients and the duration of hospitalization was analyzed. Results Pseudo pelger-huet, atypical lymphocytes, vacuole monocytes and pycnotic neutrophils rates were high in the patient group. Increased pseudo pelger-huet anomaly, psodo-pelger huet/mature lymphocyte ratio, decreased number of mature lymphocytes, and eosinophils in peripheral blood smear were observed in the advanced stage patients (p <0.05). A negative correlation was observed between the duration of hospitalization and mature lymphocyte, and monocytes with vacuoles rates (p <0.05). Conclusion Peripheral smear is a cheap, easily performed, and rapid test. Increased pseudo-pelger huet anomaly/mature lymphocytes rate is suggesting advanced stage disease, while high initial monocytes with vacuoles and mature lymphocyte rates at the time of diagnosis may be an indicator of shortened duration of hospitalization.

To comprehensively compare the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of two commonly used intravenous iron preparations, ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) and iron sucrose (IS), in adult patients with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA). A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed, Ovid Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library up to Jan 1, 2024, to identify randomized controlled trials directly comparing FCM and IS treatments in adult patients with IDA. Primary outcome was change in hemoglobin levels during folllow-up. Meta-analyses were conducted with inverse variance random effects models. Fourteen trials were included, with a total of 4757 patients. FCM resulted in a nonsignificant increase in hemoglobin levels (mean difference [MD] = 0.45 g/dL, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.08 to 0.83, p=0.02) and ferritin levels (MD = 37.32 ng/mL, 95% CI = 18.98 to 55.65, p<0.01) compared to IS. FCM was associated with a higher risk of hypersensitivity reactions compared to IS (RR: 2.97, 95% CI: 1.35-6.52, p<0.01) but showed no significant difference in severe adverse events (RR: 1.03, 95% CI: 0.88-1.21, p=0.70) and had a nonsignificant increased risk of hypophosphatemia (RR: 2.84, 95% CI: 0.89-9.06, p=0.08). Ten studies showed some concerns of risk of bias, and four studies had a high risk of bias for the change in hemoglobin levels during follow-up. Lack of standardized definitions for hypersensitivity reactions and variability in dosing protocols and follow-up durations across studies may affect the generalizability of our safety findings.