The longer the coronavirus pandemic continues, the more researchers will find out about the novel lung disease Covid-19. Doctors are observing a new complication.
- Infection with coronaviruses can lead to serious complications, such as life-threatening pneumonia.
- Doctors now observed a new episode of Covid-19: patients developed thrombosis .
- This formation of blood clots even made amputation necessary in some cases.
Thrombosis occurs when blood clots clog blood vessels, thereby restricting blood flow. Tissue located behind the thrombus (blood clot) is no longer supplied with blood, which, depending on the location, can result in a heart attack *, stroke or pulmonary embolism. The most common cause of thrombosis is coagulation disorders, heart failure or bedriddenness. The latter is also a reason why intensive care patients are often affected. However, Covid 19 patients are also at risk of developing thrombosis , as doctors have now observed.
Blood clot due to coronavirus infection
"I had 40-year-olds in my intensive care unit with blood clots in their fingers and it looked like they were going to lose them," said Shari Brosnahan, an intensive care doctor at NYU Langone Health School, told AFP. The only reason the doctor identified was the infection with the Covid-19 pathogen Sars-CoV-2 . As the Asian news portal CNA reported, there was also insufficient blood flow to the feet and hands in Covid 19 patients, the treatment of which posed a great challenge for doctors - and which even made amputations necessary.
American actor Nick Cordero was also diagnosed with thrombosis as a complication of a coronavirus infection *. The doctors saw no other option than to amputate the right leg of the 41-year-old who was being treated in the intensive care unit for Covid-19.
Read also : Coronavirus infection more dangerous for men: Researchers have this explanation .
Striking number of thromboses among Covid 19 patients: preventive therapy with blood thinners?
Blood clots were noticeably common among coronavirus patients, researchers conclude from a study published in the Dutch journal Thrombosis Research. Thrombotic complications occurred in almost every third of 184 Covid-19 patients examined . The scientists described this proportion as "remarkably high" - even if extreme consequences such as amputations were rare, according to the Ärzteblatt.
A research group led by Behnood Bikdeli from the Irving Medical Center in New York, based on a study published in the Journal of The American College of Cardiology, suggests that it might make sense to give coronavirus patients prophylactic blood thinners . "I've seen hundreds of blood clots in my career, but I've never seen so many abnormal extreme cases," quotes the medical journal Bikdeli.
More on the subject : This happens when there is a coronavirus infection in the body .
Lungs from deceased patients full of tiny blood clots
Researchers discuss various causes of thrombosis formation in coronavirus infections. For example, people with previous illnesses usually develop severe Covid 19 courses * in which the risk of thrombosis is increased, for example, by a cardiovascular disease. But the virus itself could also cause the blood clot, which also occurs with other viruses . A recent study suggests that the novel virus Sars-CoV-2 can promote blood clots. Autopsies had shown that the lungs of some deceased patients were full of tiny blood clots.
This could also be the reason why artificial respiration does not help many patients with oxygen deficiency in the blood , quotes the medical journal Cecilia Mirant-Borde, intensive care doctor at a military hospital in Manhattan. The clots would block the blood circulation in the lungs and thus the oxygen supply.
Read more : This is how doctors have to decide the fate of coronavirus patients when beds become tight.
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