COVID-19 and other serious illnesses, the researchers said.They said the discovery could become part of a scoring system to let doctors flag at-risk COVID-19 patients for closer monitoring and personalised interventions.The finding also identifies cytokines doctors could target as a new treatment approach, according to the findings shared on the pre-print server medRxiv.org.The team identified 57 COVID-19 patients treated at UVA who ultimately required a ventilator.The researchers then tested blood samples taken from the patients within 48 hours of diagnosis or hospital admission.They compared the results with those from patients who did not wind up needing a ventilator.The researchers say additional research is necessary to determine how.