Wigs from Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital have found one of the mechanisms associated with heart damage and blood clots that affect corona patients.
A study conducted at the hospital in Ashdod shows that corona patients who were defined as having a severe and moderate condition showed a change in the composition of platelets, and it is estimated that the change is one of the leading factors in the risk of vascular disease and heart attacks among patients with the disease.
Following these findings, the researchers concluded that regular treatment with blood thinners may lead to an improvement in the condition of these patients.
Some studies have found that patients with corona are significantly 4-3 times more likely to have heart attacks and strokes, especially in the first two to two weeks of the disease.
In addition corona patients are known to be prone to blood clot complications such as stroke, pulmonary embolism or venous thrombosis.
A platelet composition test, conducted among 150 hospitalized patients in moderate and severe conditions, found that these patients have particularly high levels of a type of platelet called "young platelets" that are known to cause blood clots.
While in a healthy person 3% -2% of the platelets are "young", in a person who has had a heart attack the rate is 5% -4%, while in corona patients levels of 7% -6% were found, when it is not patients who have had a heart attack.
A supplementary study also found that the more severe the corona, the much higher the number of young platelets.
Professor Eli Lev // Photo: Courtesy of Assuta Ashdod,
"To our surprise, in hospitalized corona patients we found that the level of young platelets was higher than among patients we tested with heart attacks, known as blues with a high level of young platelets," says Prof. Eli Lev, head of the cardiology department who conducted the study with Dr. Amir Cohen. "Young platelets cause blood clots to form.
Corona patients are much more prone to the possibility of blood clots forming, and events resulting from hypercoagulability, such as heart attacks.
The study concludes that treatment with antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin or Flavix should be considered in these patients.
"This study is, as mentioned, the first of its kind to find a possible mechanism linking cardiac events and corona patients. This confirms previous studies that have shown that corona patients are at increased risk for cardiac events and strokes," says Prof. Lev.
