|
 Dangerous blood clots can occur in moderate COVID-19
A European study has found an elevated risk of a life-threatening
blood clot called venous thromboembolism (VTE) in COVID-19 patients
who were not critically ill. The blood clot risk had previously been
associated with severe COVID-19. The researchers tracked 2,292
patients who came to hospital emergency rooms with mild or moderate
COVID-19 but without VTE. Four weeks later, VTE had developed in
roughly 1 of every 200 mildly ill patients who had not been
hospitalized and nearly 5 of every 200 moderately ill patients
overall, the researchers reported on Friday in Thrombosis Research
https://bit.ly/3v4YHUO. They conclude that doctors caring for mildly
and moderately ill COVID-19 patients need to be aware of these
risks, "especially in patients with moderate COVID-19 requiring
hospitalization."
High-dose blood thinners prevent clots in moderate COVID-19
In hospitalized, moderately ill COVID-19 patients who have high
levels of the d-dimer protein in their blood - indicating a
higher-than-average risk for dangerous blood clots - treatment with
high doses of the blood thinner low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH)
significantly reduced the odds of clot formation and death,
according to data from a clinical trial. The incidence of venous
thromboembolism (VTE) or death was 28.7% in the high-dose group,
compared to 41.9% in patients getting a standard dose. After
accounting for patients' various risk factors, that was a 32%
reduction in risk with high-dose heparin, the researchers said on
Monday in a report published in JAMA Internal Medicine
https://bit.ly/3lsXPWB.
[to top of second column] |
 The researchers said they
launched the trial "because we saw patients
getting blood clots and dying in front of us
while on standard doses of preventative
heparin," said study leader Dr. Alex Spyropoulos
of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research
in New York. "We were able to prove ... that d-dimer
levels more than four times the upper limit of
normal are able to predict a very high-risk
group of hospitalized COVID-19 patients - and
giving therapeutic doses of heparin in these
patients works," Spyropoulos said. "This is
practice changing now."
Click for a Reuters graphic https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl
on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks;
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
