It’s taken quick, widespread collaboration. Knowing this, health care providers have changed the way they treat COVID-19 patients to specifically address the risk of clotting. Patients with severe cases of COVID-19 seem especially susceptible, as do those with other health risk factors such as cancer, obesity and a history of blood clots. Paired together, inflammation and immobility create a near perfect environment for blood clots in your legs and lungs, Exline said. “If you’re immobile, you have an increased risk factor for blood clots,” Exline said. But when the infection is as widespread and inflammatory as COVID-19, that tendency to clot can become dangerous.”Īnd when you’re sick with COVID-19 or following stay-at-home or quarantine orders, you probably aren’t moving much. “It kind of makes sense that your body would say, if I see an infection, I need to be ready to clot. “When you, say, fall and skin your knee, it turns your immune system on, and one of the ways your immune system reacts to an injury is by making your clotting system more active,” Exline said. Blood clotting factorsįirst, COVID-19 can cause severe inflammation, which can trigger your clotting system. While the health care community is still learning the ways COVID-19 attacks the body, it appears that a few factors are causing the increased risk of clots, said Matthew Exline, MD, medical director of the medical intensive care unit at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Death or long-term complications are a real concern. “We called in experts from so many different disciplines to figure out how best to treat these patients, and we continue to learn more every day.”īlood clots are a serious condition: Untreated, they can cause damage to your brain, heart and lungs. “It’s very scary for a patient and it’s alarming for a medical center too,” said Danielle Blais, PharmD, a specialty practice pharmacist in cardiology at the Ohio State Richard M. Medical staff at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center began seeing blood clots in some of their COVID-19 patients too. In Los Angeles, doctors had to amputate the right leg of a Broadway star because of severe clotting. Surgery may be needed in rare cases to remove the clot, but most patients respond well to the medicines.As if the breathing complications associated with COVID-19 aren’t worrisome enough, doctors are discovering another risk posed by the coronavirus: blood clots that can lead to life-threatening strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolism.Īs COVID-19 traveled across Europe and hit hard in New York City, word began to spread of patients riddled with clots in their brain, hearts, lungs and legs-and sometimes all over. Most cases of pulmonary embolism are treated with blood-thinning agents, anticoagulant medicines (which keep your blood from clotting), and clot-dissolving medicines (thrombolytic therapy). Other tests may include ultrasound to see if the embolism was caused by blood clots in your legs and computed tomography (CT) scanning of the legs and lungs. Follow-up may include pulmonary angiography, a catheter procedure in which dye is injected into your bloodstream to show blood flow through your lungs. The diagnosis is usually confirmed by radioisotope scanning.
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