RESUMEN
Introduction: Proinflammatory cytokines, produced as an immune response in severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 infection, activate the coagulation cascade as well. In this study, we investigated the difference in the clinical course of patients who had been already using anti-thrombotic therapy before coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) for any reason compared to the group who had not. Methods: In this retrospective, multicenter study;patients who were hospitalized between March 11 and July 1, 2020 were divided into two main groups as who had been on anti-thrombotic therapy for any indication use previously at the time of admission or who had not been on anti-thrombotic therapy at the time of admission, and their selected clinical parameters were compared. Results: After analyzing the study population of 124 patients with a homogeneous distribution in terms of age and gender, the comparison of anti-thrombotic users and non-users showed no significant difference in hospitalization. There was a statistically significant decrease in mechanical ventilation apply rate, intensive care unit duration and mortality rate between the group using anti-thrombotic compared to the group not using it (p<0.05). Conclusion: It has already been shown that COVID-19 patients are more prone to thromboembolic events as it activates the coagulation cascade with the cytokine storm it creates and thus the mortality of COVID-19 infection increases significantly. Parallel to this fact the results of our study demonstrated that using anti-thrombotic therapy for any reason may affect the bad prognosis of the disease positively.
RESUMEN
COVID-19 coagulopathy has gained attention due to the strikingly high prevalence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). We describe here a case of bilateral PE preceded by mild COVID-19 contracted 4.5 months earlier in a male patient who presented to the outpatient clinic with exertional dyspnea. The patient had developed PE 9 years earlier, when no underlying genetic factor was detected. In the 4.5 months after contracting mild COVID-19, he presented four times with exertional dyspnea and a thorax computer tomography angiography (CTA) on two occasions and one perfusion scintigraphy revealed no embolism. Based on his high D-dimer values, his symptoms and his history of PE, he was placed on prolonged PE prophylaxis, which was stopped 33 days ago, and at that time, CTA revealed extensive bilateral PE. In conclusion, an unusually longer activation in COVID-19 coagulopathy may co-exist in patients with a history of previous PE, ongoing symptoms and increased D-dimer levels, irrespective of the COVID-19 severity.