While respiratory issues continue to be the most common symptom of a COVID-19 infection, new research indicates the disease could also be associated with hypercoagulability, or increased tendency of the blood to clot.
While respiratory issues continue to be the most common symptom of a COVID-19 infection, new research indicates the disease could also be associated with hypercoagulability, or increased tendency of the blood to clot. In a new study published November 20, 2020 in the journal EClinical Medicine by The Lancet , researchers from UC San Diego Health found that blood clots led to an increased risk of death by 74 percent.
Led by Mahmoud Malas, MD, division chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UC San Diego Health, researchers reviewed 42 different studies involving more than 8,000 patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Using random models, the team produced summary rates and odds ratios of mortality in COVID-19 patients with thromboembolism, blood clots — and compared them to patients without these conditions to determine what effect blood clots may have on risk of death.
“We began to notice a really unusual manifestation of venous and arterial thromboembolism in patients with COVID-19,” said Malas. “In addition to higher instances of blood clots, the mortality for patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and with thromboembolism was much higher, compared to patients without clots. It’s unusual because we have never seen anything like this with other respiratory infections.”
Overall, 20 percent of the COVID-19 patients were found to have blood clots in the veins, and among patients in the intensive care unit, that statistic increased to 31 percent.
Read more at University of California - San Diego
Images: Mahmoud Malas, MD, division chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UC San Diego Health. (Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences)
