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why is covid-19 causing deadly blood clots?
some doctors are treating patients with heavy doses of blood thinners.
apr 26 2020
2 minute read
doctors don't understand what about covid-19 causes blood clots. stock/getty
in new york, healthcare workers have noticed that some patients with covid-19 are developing blood clots, according to reuters.
nephrologists noticed kidney dialysis catheters were getting plugged with clots, while pulmonologists who monitored covid-19 patients on mechanical ventilators saw that some portions of lungs were bloodless.
reuters also reported that neurosurgeons have also seen an increase in cases of strokes due to blood clots, with at least half of the patients testing positive for the virus.
“it’s very striking how much this disease causes clots to form,” dr. mocco, a mount sinai neurosurgeon, told reuters. he explained that some doctors believe covid-19 isn’t just a respiratory disease, as a stroke sometimes can be a young patient’s first symptom of the virus.
as doctors from different specialities discussed their findings, they decided to implement a new protocol that would see some patients receiving high doses of a blood thinning drug, even before clotting is found. the protocol will only be followed with certain patients, as blood thinners can lead to internal bleeding in those considered high risk.
“maybe, just maybe, if you prevent the clotting, you can make the disease less severe,” dr. david reich, mount sinai’s president, told reuters. around the world, other doctors and hospitals have also been finding unusual, and alarming results. one dutch study of 184 patients in the icu with covid-19-related pneumonia saw that more than 20 per cent of patients were having clotting issues. in wuhan china, a similar study found 25 per cent of cases had clots.
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dr. behnood bikdeli, a cardiovascular medicine fellow at columbia university irving medical centre has helped coordinate the international coalition of physicians looking into the clotting issue. bikdeli told cnn that there are three major reasons why covid-19 patients have a high risk for blood clotting.
one reason is that a majority of coronavirus patients do have pre-existing health conditions like heart disease and high blood pressure. he says that these patients, regardless of the virus, already have an increased tendency to clot compared to healthy patients.
bikdeli said that the second reason clotting is being seen in patients is because the virus can cause a “cytokine storm” — a term used to describe when the body’s immune system turns on itself. according to cnn, regardless if it’s influenza, covid-19, or other illnesses, patients who experience a cytokine storm are at a higher risk for clotting.
the third reason could be that there’s just something about the virus that causes clotting — but doctors haven’t figured it out yet. and while blood thinners is one way to help patients, doctors are also trying to find alternative treatments, since too much can be deadly. experts are now calling for more studies to be done to determine the cause of the clots and how to prevent them.
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