Researchers at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine released the findings of the autopsy of 10 African-American COVID-19 victims, which showed that their lungs were filled with blood clots.
The researchers said all 10 patients had underlying medical conditions that have been shown to worsen COVID-19 infection, including obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and obesity. However, they explained that genetic factors could also be at play.
The findings were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, which may help us explain why black people are suffering so much more from coronavirus in the United States and some other nations such as Britain.
Pathologist Dr. Richard Vander Heide from the medical school said, “We found that the small vessels and capillaries in the lungs were obstructed by blood clots and associated hemorrhage that significantly contributed to decompensation and death in these patients.”
The researchers also found blood markers known as “D-dimers” that work to break down blood clots.
Dr. Vander Heide told CNN, “I think obesity is important in our population.” Fat activates inflammatory chemicals and coronavirus generates even more inflammation, generating blood clots.
“One of the things people are seeing with COVID now is the cytokine storm that is generated by the virus,” Dr. Vander Heide said. The cytokine storm is an intense immune response to the virus. “We can see it in our sections of the lungs,” he added. “We see the viral effects in the cells.”
The pathologist explained that the patients might also have their own predisposition to cytokine storm and blood clotting. He said, “There could be all kinds of genetic factors.”
The researchers wrote, “We also note that two of our patients were aged 40-50 years, younger than those generally thought to be at risk of death due to COVID-19.”
The study findings may shed light on why black people, in general, are suffering more from the coronavirus in the UK, according to Prof. Dennis McGonagle of the University of Leeds and colleagues.
They wrote in a comment section, “A feature of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been an increased mortality in Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK, which has resulted in the UK Government setting up an emergency investigative task force.” “In the USA, mortality from COVID-19 has been particularly high in African American communities in large cities,” they added.
