New research, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, has reported a high incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients with severe COVID-19m suggesting the need for systematic anticoagulant therapy in such patients as a precautionary measure.
The most common cause of death due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). However, the virus has been affecting organs other than the lungs, such as the heart and the kidney.
It has been found that patients with serve illness have a higher level of inflammation, as evidenced by significant levels of D-dimer (a small protein fragment present in the blood after a blood clot is degraded by fibrinolysis) and procoagulant changes that predispose to intravascular clot formation.
Researchers have reported both arterial and venous clotting events in patients with severe illness.
DVT can have a number of serious complications; for instance, the clot travels through the circulation back to the heart or into the lungs to cause a pulmonary embolism (PE), causing chest pain, shortness of breath, and hemoptysis (coughing up blood). Some patients with such complications could go into shock, have a right ventricular failure, or even die.
The study, performed at a French medical center, was conducted after reports of increased levels of inflammatory markers and early reports that DVT was more frequently seen in seriously ill COVID-19 cases.
Of all the participants, 65 percent had DVT at the time of admission. In some patients, the researchers saw bilateral deep vein clots, while in other patients, the clot was in the veins closer to the heart.
About half the patients with advanced cases of COVID-19 will die, according to experts. And 27 to 69 percent of them will have venous thromboembolic events, while 25 percent will have blood clots in the lungs.
Nearly 80 percent of the participants developed DVT so it is reasonable to suspect that through early screening and treatment of this complication, which could help lower the high mortality rate.
Moreover, the study researchers explained that implementing routine anticoagulant prophylaxis for all severely ill COVID-19 patients is important. That’s because at least one in seven patients in the current study had DVT even while they were on anticoagulant prophylaxis. The article originally appeared on New Medical Life Sciences.
