Severe COVID-19 Infection Raises Risk Of Deadly Deep Vein Thrombosis

Sep, 2022 - By SMI

A recent study discovered that the coronavirus's capacity to infect endothelial cells, which can cause inflammation and irregularities in the coagulation process, may be a plausible explanation for the elevated risk.

Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are two types of venous thromboembolism that start when a blood clot develops in such a vein inside the body, frequently the leg or pelvis. The clot's potential to obstruct blood flow makes the disease risky. When an arterial clot occurs, blood supply to an organ or body part is abruptly cut off, which can trigger cell damage, a cardiovascular disease, or a brain hemorrhage.  Based on a recent study from the Perelman School of Medicine, people hospitalised with COVID-19 are more likely to get venous thromboembolism than people hospitalised with influenza.

This connection was discovered in the study both before and after vaccine accessibility, demonstrating that the risk was unrelated to vaccination. People claim that the risk of blood clotting prevents them from wanting to have a COVID-19 immunisation. The risk of these lethal clots comes from COVID-19 itself, not from vaccinations.

While COVID-19 is typically thought of as a respiratory infection, some data suggests the virus may also cause the body to become hypercoagulable, or have excessive blood clotting in the body,however more study needed to prove it. The Penn study, which included over 90,000 patients overall, was the largest to date to address the issue. Among influenza patients who were hospitalised, the risk of deep vein thrombosis increased by 5.3% over the course of 90 days. Patients hospitalised with influenza had a 14.4% 90-day risk of arterial thromboembolism compared to 15.8% and 16.3%, respectively, for COVID-19 before and after the availability of the vaccination, respectively. It became possible to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

The thrombotic cases associated with COVID-19 will be investigated by the Penn researchers through an international meta-analysis and outside of the hospital setting. The ability of the coronavirus to infect endothelial cells, which can result in inflammation and abnormalities in the coagulation process, may be one explanation for the increased risk, claims the research team. For validate the relationship and look into probable causes and potential processes for the blood abnormalities, the research team said more study is required.