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. 2020 Jun;189(5):846-847.
doi: 10.1111/bjh.16727. Epub 2020 May 4.

Thromboembolic risk and anticoagulant therapy in COVID-19 patients: emerging evidence and call for action

Anastasios Kollias  1 , Konstantinos G Kyriakoulis  1 , Evangelos Dimakakos  1 , Garyphallia Poulakou  1 , George S Stergiou  1 , Konstantinos Syrigos  1
Affiliations

Thromboembolic risk and anticoagulant therapy in COVID-19 patients: emerging evidence and call for action

Anastasios Kollias et al. Br J Haematol. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Emerging evidence shows that severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be complicated with coagulopathy, namely disseminated intravascular coagulation, which has a rather prothrombotic character with high risk of venous thromboembolism. The incidence of venous thromboembolism among COVID-19 patients in intensive care units appears to be somewhat higher compared to that reported in other studies including such patients with other disease conditions. D-dimer might help in early recognition of these high-risk patients and also predict outcome. Preliminary data show that in patients with severe COVID-19, anticoagulant therapy appears to be associated with lower mortality in the subpopulation meeting sepsis-induced coagulopathy criteria or with markedly elevated d-dimer. Recent recommendations suggest that all hospitalized COVID-19 patients should receive thromboprophylaxis, or full therapeutic-intensity anticoagulation if such an indication is present.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; anticoagulant; prophylaxis; thromboembolism; thrombosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare to have no potential conflicts of interest regarding the present work.

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