Blood thinners significantly increase chances of survival

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The coronavirus in a vein with blood cells: Covid-19 can clump the blood

Blood thinners can significantly reduce the risk of death in Covid 19 patients. This is what US doctors report after a study with just under 4400 participants in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology". Accordingly, the treatment with blood thinners halved the death rate of the participating Covid-19 patients. In addition, the risk of artificial ventilation was reduced by about 30 percent, as the group around Valentin Fuster from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York writes.

It is not a new approach to treating Covid-19 patients with blood thinners. As early as May, the German Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis Research recommended that every patient treated in hospital be treated with the blood thinner heparin in high doses, unless there is nothing to prevent it. The US study now confirms the benefits of the drugs.

"As a doctor who has treated Covid-19 patients on the front lines, I know how important it is to have answers about what the best treatment means for these patients," said co-author Anuradha Lala in a statement from the clinic quoted. She and her colleagues analyzed patient data from March and April from five hospitals in the Mount Sinai Group in New York.

They divided the 4389 patients into three groups: one group received no blood thinners, the second received such preparations for treatment. The third group was given a lower dose of blood thinners as a preventative measure.

Almost 29 percent of those patients who had been treated therapeutically with blood thinners died. In the group that received no such drugs, it was almost 26 percent. However, taking into account previous illnesses and other health factors of the participants, the risk of death for patients treated with blood thinners was lower by 47 percent. In the group who received the medication as a precaution, the risk was reduced by 50 percent.

The risk of ventilation also decreases

In addition, the risk of having to be artificially ventilated also fell in those two groups who received blood thinners - by 31 percent for those treated therapeutically and by 28 percent for those treated as a precaution. Serious complications from bleeding, such as the use of blood thinners, occurred in three percent of those treated therapeutically. In the other group, the proportion was less than two percent.

Additional indications that blood thinners can be useful for Covid-19 patients came from 26 autopsies of people who had died of Covid-19. In eleven of them, the doctors found evidence of thrombosis - caused by blood clots, which blood thinners could probably have prevented. "With the exception of a stroke, there was no suspicion of thromboembolic disease prior to autopsy. This suggests that clinical assessments may underestimate the actual burden of thromboembolic disease," the researchers write.

For Uwe Janssens, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) in Berlin, the result is no surprise: "It has long been known in clinics that thromboembolic events are a common complication of Covid-19." Treatment recommendations for this were already published in June in a guideline of numerous specialist societies for intensive medical therapy of Covid 19 patients. Nevertheless, Janssens praises the large amounts of data in the current study. It is very important to take a close look at many aspects of their condition when admitting Covid 19 patients to hospital.

kry / dpa