Correlations between Covid 19 Symptoms and Risk of Pulmonary Embolism

ABSTRACT

The World Health Organization (WHO) declares COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020. Each pandemic wave had different clinical and biological characteristics, the expression of the disease being correlated with the dominant viral variant. Patients with COVID 19 have a pro-coagulant status, which predisposes them to thromboembolic complications. The current study aims to systematize the symptoms of COVID 19 and to highlight its relationship with the suspicion and confirmation of the diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism. We performed a descriptive retrospective study on patients with COVID 19 for a period of 4 months (September-December 2021). During this period, 183 were hospitalized with COVID 19 and 53 were enrolled in the study. Incidence of COVID 19 was 63% (33) in men and 37% for women. The average age of women was 68 years compared to men where the average age was 61 years. We observed a higher incidence of the disease in men in the 41-60 age group (39% of all men), while, in women, the most affected age group was 61-80 years (60% of all women). Pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) was diagnosed by pulmonary artery angiography, with an incidence of 57% in the study group affecting 60% of women and 55% of men. The symptoms are dominated by fever, cough and dyspnea. Fever was present in 65% of women and 55% of men, cough was present in 65% of women and 79% of men, while dyspnea involved 40% of women and 42% of men. In conclusion, PE was a common complication in COVID patients that contributed to adverse outcome and higher mortality. The symptoms were not specific to minor forms of the disease. Copyright © 2021 Authors. All rights reserved.