A new medical study conducted by experts from Europe suggests that COVID-19 patients had a higher risk of being infected with a deadly condition. The life-threatening disease specified in the study is a type of blood clot known as venous thromboembolism or VTE. The blood clot condition could affect patients who did not experience the coronavirus's severity or were not critically ill. The new findings on the correlation between venous thromboembolism and COVID-19 were initially linked to severe cases of the coronavirus.
Severe Blood Clot: Venous Thromboembolism
The study on venous thromboembolism's connection with COVID-19 was made possible through the help of 2,292 participants. According to Reuters, the patients were observed since the day they were admitted to hospital emergency rooms due to mild or moderate COVID-19 infection, but were diagnosed with no active VTE blood clot.
The blood clot condition was found to have developed from 1 of every 200 mildly ill patients four weeks later, according to the study. On the other group who were tagged as moderately ill, five individuals tested positive for VTE in every 200 patients. The findings confirmed an abnormal development of the VTE for both the mildly ill and moderately ill COVID-19 patients.
The study suggests that the specialists assigned to the coronavirus individuals must know the condition and the risks of venous thromboembolism when treating their patients. The experts emphasized in their research that the awareness of the correlation between venous thromboembolism and the coronavirus must be heightened, especially for the benefit of the patients suffering from moderate COVID-19 and requires hospitalization.
Thankfully, the experts found a simple solution to treat the blood clots. Patients who were inflicted with moderate COVID-19 and are at risk of venous thromboembolism may undergo procedures that involve high-dose blood thinners to prevent further damage.
High Dosage of Blood Thinner Solution to VTE
COVID-19 patients who were moderately ill of the coronavirus, hospitalized, and have intense D-dimer protein levels in their blood content were found to have a lesser risk of blood clot formation and death when they were treated with anticoagulant, medicines that help prevent blood clots. The study specified the thinner medium as low-molecular-weight heparin or LMWH, which worked when relayed on high doses to patients.
The venous thromboembolism and its accompanied mortality risk were analyzed in the study, and it was found that the possibility is 28.7 percent in the group who takes high-dosage of the treatment, while 41.9 percent are recorded on the separate group that received standard heparin dose. The recent findings were published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, titled "Efficacy and Safety of Therapeutic-Dose Heparin vs Standard Prophylactic or Intermediate-Dose Heparins for Thromboprophylaxis in High-risk Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 - The HEP-COVID Randomized Clinical Trial."
The venous thromboembolism and COVID-19 correlation trials were inspired due to the experiences the authors went through throughout the pandemic. New York's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research expert Alex Spyropoulo witnessed the first accounts of death in patients under standard heparin dosage. The initial study was published in the journal Thrombosis Research, titled "Risk of symptomatic venous thromboembolism in mild and moderate COVID-19: A comparison of two prospective European cohorts."
RELATED ARTICLE: New Zealand Among The First Countries to Acquire COVID-19 Antiviral Treatment Molnupiravir That Helps Reduce Hospitalizations
Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.
