Simple blood test can predict the patients most likely to die from Covid

A BLOOD test predicts the patients most likely to die from Covid.

It identifies 14 proteins in the blood linked to survival, scientists say.

Artificial Intelligence uses plasma levels to work out mortality risk with almost 100 per cent accuracy weeks before.

The test may also prove useful in measuring the efficacy of Covid-19 treatments developed in the future by showing their impact on individual patients.

The researchers analysed levels of 321 proteins in blood samples taken at 349 time points from 50 individuals being treated in Germany and Austria.

A machine learning method was used to find links between the measured proteins and patient survival.

Prof Florian Kurth, of Charite University Hospital, Berlin, said: “Covid-19 is exceptionally diverse, ranging from asymptomatic to very serious ­disease and death.

“It is difficult to estimate the individual risk.”

The average time from admission to death in the study was 28 days.