Patients with pre-existing comorbidities and immunosuppression are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe manifestations of COVID-19. This also includes cancer patients, who are shown to have a poor prognosis after infection. Here, we describe the case of a 72-year old male patient with B-cell depletion after maintenance treatment with rituximab for non-Hodgkin-lymphoma who had a prolonged COVID-19 course and initial false negative test results. Our case highlights the diagnostic pitfalls in diagnosing COVID-19 in B-cell depleted patients and discuss the role of B-cell depletion in the course and treatment of COVID-19. Furthermore, we investigated peripheral blood monocytes and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells in our patient. In conclusion, our case report can help physicians to avoid diagnostic pitfalls for COVID-19 in hemato-oncological patients under chemoimmunotherapy and tries to explain the role of B-cell depletion and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells in this context.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, lymphoma, T-cell activation, B-NHL, 【초록키워드】 Treatment, SARS-COV-2 infection, Infection, diagnostic, Immunosuppression, Comorbidity, risk, Case report, monocyte, Peripheral blood, T cell, male, Patient, Cancer patients, B-cell, manifestation, poor prognosis, help, physician, diagnosing, negative test, highlight, initial, Course, greater, shown, include, investigated, explain, 【제목키워드】 rituximab, Prolonged, Depleted,